The National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) has launched their website earlier today.
The launch ceremony was held at Dharumavantha Hospital, with UNICEF Representative to Maldives Dr. Edward Addai, Dharumavantha Hospital CEO Ibrahim Abdul Razzaq Haleem, Senior Consultant Specialist and Clinical Director of NCMH Dr. Shanooha Mansoor giving speeches during the ceremony.
Mansoor said the website was being created with the purpose of providing equal accessibility to everyone in Maldives to mental health resources and creating a repository for all mental health resources in one place. She went on to say that the website is currently online in English.
According to Mansoor, the website has the National Mental Health Helpline (1676), and has subcategories in seeking help divided into "For Me", "For Someone Else" and "For Professionals (Coming Soon)". The For Me section has access to basic information on mental health conditions such bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression, etc, with the For Someone Else section meant for people who want to find help and how they can support another individual. It also has information on understanding mental illness, and parenting and mental illness as well.
Mansoor went on to say that the website has a Self Help section that provides worksheets and PDF downloads that provides exercises to ground themselves, thought exercises, etc. It also has a page for general treatments, services, general information on medications, said Mansoor.
She showcased the Get Involved page where they have included news and events, and a section known as the Creative Corner, where people can submit their work anonymously or with their names, which will be reviewed and published by NCMH. They have external links to websites that are important to the cause, along with valid free mobile applications.
Mansoor said the Urgent Help section is one of their more important parts, where if someone has a medical emergency, they can make a call to find support for someone at risk and connect them to the helpline directly from the website. They have a referral document as well, which Mansoor said is a vital part of their work they wanted to include in the website, which shows the path people have to take to get help effectively and for any information they seek.
Mansoor stated that they are working on translating the website into Dhivehi as well, which will be up and running soon.
