AMMAN — The National Center
for Mental Health has recorded over 2,000 visits last year, and specialists
argue that the budget for mental health programs must be increased to make up
for the lack of services in the field, and that legislation on the matter needs
to be issued, according to Al-Ghad News.
اضافة اعلان
The
National Council for Family Affairs (NCFA) organized a workshop on the topic of mental health, and social
and psychosocial support in Jordan, with specialists agreeing that the need for
mental health services is increasing, but there is a shortage of specialized
doctors, of mental health services, and no coverage by private insurance. At
the same time, the cost in the private sector is high and the distribution of
such services is poor, they said.
According to the center’s figures, 35
therapists and psychiatrists work for the center, 12 specialists work for the
Jordanian Royal Medical Services, four in universities’ hospitals, and 44
doctors work in the private sector, distributed as follows: 36 clinics in
Amman, three in Zarqa, and five in Irbid. There are no such clinics in the southern
regions.
According to the
World Health Organization, in 2014 there was one
psychiatrist for 200,000 citizens in Jordan.
Mohammad
Meqdadi, NCFA secretary-general, said that the absence of specialized Jordanian
legislation regarding psychiatric disorders is a real obstacle to the provision
of preventive and curative services in the area of mental health, pointing out that
according to WHO, around 75 percent of countries have specialized mental health
legislation, which is not Jordan’s case.
Meqdadi pointed
to the growing demand for specialized mental health support during the
pandemic, which led to specialists having to deal with higher levels of anxiety
and tension than usual, in addition to the challenges facing health-care
workers.
He also lamented
the exclusion of psychiatric disorders from the policy of insurance companies,
saying that while Jordanians receive free
treatment at government health clinics, the cost of psychotherapy in the
private sector is high.
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