Health Ministry: 76pc of psychiatric patients return to work after rehabilitation

Kuala Lumpur, Oct 6 — The Health Ministry's mental health treatment in Malaysia has achieved remarkable success, with 76 per cent of psychiatric patients undergoing rehabilitation and returning to the workforce as of June 2023, according to Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad. This achievement exceeds the Ministry's Key Performance Indicator (KPI) target of 60 per cent and demonstrates the effectiveness of the Community Mental Health Centre (Mentari) vocational support programme.

Dr Dzulkefly highlighted that mental health treatment in Malaysia prioritises functional rehabilitation, aiming to enable patients not only to recover from symptoms but also to live independently and reintegrate into their daily lives and workplaces. The programme, available at 39 Mentari centres across the country, offers rehabilitation, psychosocial assistance, and support for re-entering the workforce and achieving independence.

During a question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat, Dr Dzulkefly addressed the indicators of treatment effectiveness at government facilities, the methods used to evaluate success, and the rate of patients returning to treatment. He revealed that the psychiatric patient hospital readmission rate within three months is 6.32 per cent, well below the KPI target of 25 per cent, further attesting to the quality of MOH treatment.

Responding to a supplementary question regarding the use of cannabis extracts for mental health treatment, Dr Dzulkefly stated that the Ministry of Health (MOH) is open to medical clinical research into the substance, provided it is backed by scientific evidence. However, he emphasized that the MOH firmly opposes any efforts to fully decriminalise cannabis use, drawing lessons from past public health crises in Thailand.