State Minister for Health and Family Welfare M A Muhit today said the government had launched a ‘Community Mental Health’ project to bring mental health services directly to people at the grassroots level.<\/p>\n
“We want to implement the project over the next one to one-and-a-half years as a pilot initiative. We want to roll it out across all 500 upazilas across the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitially, we will likely start in 20 upazilas. In doing so, we will face various challenges and work to overcome them. Drawing on those lessons, our vision for the health sector is to ensure that these services can be delivered in every upazila nationwide within a year and a half in an accessible, affordable and inclusive manner.\u201d<\/p>\n
The state minister made the remarks while speaking as the chief guest at a seminar on mental health held at the Bangla Academy in the capital today.<\/p>\n
Aachol Foundation, Human Rights Development Centre (HRDC), Local Education and Economic Development Organization (LEEDO) and Polli Ekota Unnayan Sangstha jointly organised the event.<\/p>\n
Highlighting the government’s strategic roadmap, Muhit said allocations had already been made in this year’s national budget to operationalize community mental health services.<\/p>\n
“In our country, government-run mental health services have long remained confined to tertiary-level institutions, such as the National Institute of Mental Health in Dhaka and the specialized hospital in Pabna,” he said.<\/p>\n
To address the shortage of trained personnel at the grassroots level, the state minister proposed introducing two- to three-year vocational diploma courses in mental health, similar to diploma engineering programmes.<\/p>\n
“Professionals with advanced master’s degrees or PhDs are often reluctant to serve at the union or upazila levels. Therefore, in coordination with the National Skills Development Authority (NSDA) and universities, we must develop a dedicated, community-oriented workforce, including mental health workers and psychosocial support staff, who will take pride in serving rural communities,” Muhit added.<\/p>\n
Addressing the broader context, the state minister highlighted the deep-seated psychological trauma stemming from 15 years of authoritarian suppression, as well as the aftermath of the July mass uprising.<\/p>\n
“Over the past decade and a half, an entire generation experienced trauma in university dormitories through oppressive practices such as ‘gono-rooms’. The suppression of basic rights has created systemic unrest,” he said.<\/p>\n
Referring to the July uprising, Muhit said, “While many brave youths embraced martyrdom and thousands suffered physical disabilities, millions of teenagers and young people took part in processions, witnessing their peers and companions being shot dead or maimed before their eyes. As a nation, we are currently experiencing profound post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).”<\/p>\n
Issuing a note of caution, the state minister said, “Future political leaders, teachers and physicians will emerge from this very generation. If they are not provided with structured psychosocial support and counselling, unresolved trauma could risk turning the oppressed into oppressors in the long run.”<\/p>\n
Calling for a change in societal attitudes, Muhit emphasized that social stigma remained the single greatest barrier to mental well-being and inclusion.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
-BSS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
State Minister for Health and Family Welfare M A Muhit today said…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[174,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bangladesh","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4329"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4331,"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4329\/revisions\/4331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dhakastatement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}