Nat'l Mental Health Day demanded

Speakers at a seminar yesterday urged the government to declare July 23 as National Mental Health Day aiming to raise public awareness about mental health issues.
They also called upon the government and citizens' groups to ensure justice for people with psycho-social disorders.
Laying emphasis on support to individuals with psycho-social disorders, they said there were many barriers to providing psycho-social support to these people and perhaps the biggest was a lack of knowledge about mental health issues and people's negative attitude towards psycho-social disorder.
About 16 percent of the country's total population country are suffering from different forms of psychological problems and the number is on the rise, said Kamal UA Chowdhury, a clinical psychology teacher at Dhaka University, at the seminar, "Psycho-social Disability and Mental Health", organised by Jatiya Pratibandhi Forum at Dhaka Reporters Unity.
Meanwhile, the government has taken various programmes, including holding a rally, distributing leaflets, postering, and publishing special supplements in national dailies, to mark World Mental Health Day today.