IGMH holds the Oevaru Mental Health Conference

While mental health and seeking help for mental health conditions are a pretty common concept among Western countries, in Asian countries such as the Maldives, the topic still remains taboo. Though the younger generation of the country has started getting educated on mental health and the different ways to seek help, it is still a hush-hush topic in households and among family members, who often seek to hide the mental health issues of loved ones behind closed doors.

Though this practice of hiding mental health issues had become a common practice, within the past few years the Maldives has slowly but surely been making progress towards acknowledging the growing issue in the country. Some of the major steps taken towards making the topic less taboo and providing help for those who are struggling include the mental health centre that was established in Hulhumale’ hospital in addition to the introduction of a psychological support helpline which was introduced in June of 2023 targetted towards helping school students, who often fall victim to battling mental health issues due to the pressures of school life.

While opening clinics and providing support is a major step towards progress, one of the key factors that contribute to making talks around mental health such a taboo topic is the lack of awareness regarding the topic in the Maldives.

In order to combat this issue, give people an insight into the hardships those with mental health issues face and educate those who can bring about real change, the National Centre for Mental Health Care which is operated under Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) has launched the first-ever mental health conference in the Maldives on October 14th under the name ‘Oevaru’. With the theme of 2023 being ‘Changing Currents – Forming Connections’ the two-day conference commenced at Meeruma with the First Lady of the country Fazna Ahmed partaking in the opening ceremony.

This conference is expected to be attended by 100 individuals from different institutions who are dedicated to making key contributions towards promoting mental health in the Maldives. Though this first step needed to be taken years back, this workshop which is set to be hosted annually might finally break the taboo of mental health in the country, normalising the difficult conversations that are essential.