Every year on the 10th of October, World Mental Health Day is celebrated, established by the World Federation of Mental Health and with the participation of the World Health Organization. According to WHO, mental disorders are noted in at least 10 percent of the world’s population, including 20 percent of children and adolescents. About 300 million people worldwide suffer from depression, and 50 million from dementia, schizophrenia is diagnosed in 23 million people, bipolar disorder – in 60 million.
What is mental health? The dean of the Faculty of Clinical Psychology of KSMU, Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Professor Tatiana Dmitrievna VASILENKO, Dean of the Faculties of Clinical Psychology, Social Work and Economics and Management will tell how to maintain mental balance amid the dominance of information and stressful situations, says.
– Mental health is a very broad concept. First of all, it is the ability of the individual to adequately respond to the requirements of the situation.
To form a self-sufficient mentally healthy personality, a person needs stable positive emotional connections from birth. Nowadays, when the rhythm of life is accelerating and time is sorely lacking, from early childhood people face a violation of contacts, close relationships. This can serve as the beginning of mental deviations.
Situations, when young people and teenagers shoot people (a recent example is Perm State University), are frightening in their regularity. But the persons involved in these events could have been identified earlier. Psychiatric and medical-psychological services have been destroyed in the country. If earlier these specialists were on the staff of any medical institution, now they are not. And the deviations that the district psychiatrist could diagnose earlier are now latent, developing and resulting in a tragedy. After the Perm events, the President instructed to create an online platform for psychological assistance to children. This is a very necessary step to avoid tragic consequences from someone’s mental problems.
As practice shows, the need for psychological help is very high: A prolonged pandemic causes stress in people. Therefore, the phenomena of anxiety are increasing; many cannot look into the future without fear.
Our university is glad to help in such situations: A psychological center for students has been organized at the Department of General Clinical Psychology of KSMU. Admission is anonymous and free. Specialists provide advisory assistance to KSMU employees. Our contacts are on the KSMU website https://kurskmed.com/news/read/4729