Many patients who are suffering from mental health issues do not have proper access to treatment due to a lack of health insurance coverage.
As per the Federal National Council (FNC) report, due to a lack of insurance coverage, the patients and their families have to pay the high cost of treatment.
The second deputy speaker of the FNC and chairperson of the FNC Committee on Health and Environmental Affairs, Naema Abdullah Al Sharhan, disclosed the report’s details. It also emphasises the problems in diagnosing mental disorders among children because of the lack of psychiatric clinics.
The Health and Environmental Affairs committee designed the final report of the parliament on the topic, “The Ministry of Health and Prevention’s policy on promoting mental illness in the United Arab Emirates.”
Al Sharhan stated in the report that the committee had discussed the matter of mental health in three major aspects, including the ministry’s policy and strategic objectives for making policies and legislation on mental health and the ministry’s role in promoting and extending the scope of broad and integrated mental health service along with promoting the deterence of mental disorders for fellows of the society.
The committee further highlighted the ministry’s role in cooperating with the related authorities to enforce the policy that is promoting mental illness and the services provided to these patients.
Al Sharhan, “The committee held around 13 meetings to discuss and examine the problem of mental illness. During the meeting, it met spokespeople of the governmental and local health sectors to learn about the services provided during mental illness, the challenges they face, and mechanisms for coordination and cooperation with the health officers involved in providing the services for these patients.”
A virtual panel discussion was also conducted online, said Al Sharhan, on the topic “Promoting Mental Health in UAE” to find the most significant challenges that arrive in the field of mental health promotion, whether the type of services given to psychiatric patients or problems faced by the workers dealing with these patients, in addition to knowing the limit of community awareness of these services.
“Five field visits were created to government hospitals to learn about the quality of services provided in mentally ill patients and the level of health care given to patients in terms of medicine and rehabilitation,” stated Al Sharhan.