Depression is one of the world’s largest contributor of disability.
With the World Health Day theme “Depression – Let’s Talk”, the Health Ministry hopes to eradicate the stigma in the society that we live in.
Minister for Health Rosy Akbar says, we need to raise awareness by talking about the issue, and looking for ways to solve this health issue.
“I think that is very important for us to be okay ourselves and to know that the person we leave with, the person next door to us or the person within our workplace is okay. So these few words ladies and gentlemen will initiate the conversation that we want, otherwise the theme would not be too fitting if you wanna talk, ‘Let’s start Talking’ ourselves.
The World Health Organization is working very closely, not only with the Pacific Region but Fiji, to try and curb the problem of depression.
“In our region, 1 out of 15 person suffer from depression in our society, 1 out of 15. We had the numbers from Fiji recently and those are scary numbers, about suicide, about depression, those are very serious numbers. Depression affects people from all age, women and men. We certainly all know someone who suffers from depression in society. Maybe considering the number I just mentioned people around us are already suffering from anxiety or depression,” said Dr Corinne Capuano a representative from WHO.