49K people visited Egypt's 1st digital platform for mental health services

CAIRO - 22 October 2022: A total of 49,000 people visited the national electronic platform for mental health services and addiction treatment, which is considered the first of its kind in the Eastern Mediterranean region. 

 

In March, Egypt launched its first national electronic platform in Egypt for mental health services and addiction treatment, aiming to expand the provision of mental health services and making them available to all free of charge. 

 

The platform aims to correct misconceptions and providing sound information for all, on the following link:

http:/ /nmhp.mohp.gov.eg/mental/web/en.  

 

The Ministry of Health and Population revealed the continuation of providing mental health services, through the electronic platform for mental health and addiction treatment.

 

 

Statistics

 

 

The ministry added that the number of electronic questionnaire forms that were conducted by users reached 17,000, while the number of “virtual” treatment sessions reached 3,000 sessions, which were offered to platform visitors.

 

She said that the percentage of female users reached 75% compared to 25% of males, adding that 30% of the platform's visitors were married, compared to 70% of the unmarried.

 

She emphasized that the most age groups who used the site ranged between 15 to 20 years, while the percentage of non-working users was 67%, compared to 33% of workers, adding that the site's users were from across all governorates, but most of them were from Cairo.

 

She pointed out that the national electronic platform for mental health and addiction treatment aims to provide free services for mental health and addiction treatment, for all age groups of Egyptians and non-Egyptians residing on the land of Egypt, explaining that the platform is the first of its kind in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

 

She pointed out that the electronic platform is one of the fruits of cooperation between the General Secretariat for Mental Health and Addiction Treatment, the National Information Center at the Ministry of Health and Population, the World Health Organization, and the University of British Columbia in Canada.

 

Mental health reports said that there is full support for initiatives and programs concerned with mental health and instilling a culture of recovery from mental disorders and rehabilitation, which contributes to improving the quality of life of citizens and facing the changes that occur in societies.

 

Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, the official spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Population, referred to the mechanisms for updating the work tools of the National Survey of Mental Disorders, drug abuse, disability, and the impact of the Corona pandemic on the mental health of citizens.

 

He pointed out the importance of mental health education and awareness campaigns targeting different ages, and their importance to the individual and society, to reduce the spread of negative psychological phenomena, change citizens' misconceptions and remove stigma about mental illness, which contributes to reducing some psychological phenomena that have recently spread in societies.

 

"We aim to integrate mental health services within the medical care services provided to citizens in coordination between the various sectors of the ministry, and to train health service providers on guidelines for diagnosing mental illnesses through training courses and programs provided to (doctors, nursing, psychological and social specialists)," he added. 

 

He said that mental health services and consultations are provided "remotely" through hotlines, and the national electronic platform for mental health services and addiction treatment are available to everyone.

 

He revealed the importance of integrating mental health initiatives for school students, as he followed up on the mechanisms for implementing the school mental health program in educational facilities, which was applied to a group of schools in 2017, and continued: We seek to generalize this model, which aims to help teachers enhance understanding of the importance of mental health in the school environment. 

 

 

About the platform

 

The platform includes three main sections. The first section provides educational and awareness content to users by providing important scientific information about common disorders in general psychiatry and its specialized branches such as child and adolescent psychiatry, the elderly and addiction.

 

The second section includes providing psychological support and counseling services through virtual clinics “telemedicine” through a few simple steps that enable users to assess their psychological state through the general mental health questionnaire, as well as booking a session with qualified psychotherapists, where the user chooses the appropriate place and time to perform.

 

The third section is concerned with the site’s supervisors and administrators, where they can monitor and evaluate the platform’s performance, and it presents the most important reports on the portal’s statistics, such as the number of users, their age, follow-up rate, most visited specialties, and other data.