CAIRO: The Ministry of Health recently launched a hotline to serve psychiatric patients countrywide and spread awareness about psychiatric care which is often confused with lunacy. Big billboards dotting the capital feature the photo of a teenager with a big slogan saying: "Psychiatric illness is like any other and can be cured. "This phrase is meant to dispel stereotypes and inhibitions related to psychological trauma since the victims rarely reveal their pain for fear of stigma, says Dr Mervat Sedki, the psychiatric specialist in charge of the hotline. The hotline is the first of its kind in the country to cope with related emergencies. It offers first aid in psychiatric cases that are usually dealt with by individual specialists or specialized clinics. "The fact that the families of some of the patients did not know where to go because the clinics or hospitals were located far from their homes, was what triggered the [launch of the] hotline, said Sedki. "The Ministry of Health, in cooperation with the Mental Health Secretariat and field specialists, has made arrangements with mental and psychiatric hospitals to receive patients directed to them by the hotline. "We direct every patient to the nearest hospital to their home. From now on those who have called us will know where to go when there is an emergency. Sedki said: "While this gap is slowly getting filled, people who were not necessarily mental patients began to approach us seeking counseling on other matters. According to the specialist, since its launch one and half months ago, the hotline has received 120 calls from the families of mental patients. Hundreds of other calls were made by those seeking counseling, be it psychiatric patients undergoing treatment or other socially traumatized groups that find relief in anonymously telling their stories. Sedki added: "We also have experts specialized in the child psychiatry and elderly patients as well as in the rehabilitation of drug addicts. "The bulk of the psychiatric patients who approach us suffer from obsession, tension and depression. We make a point of gathering basic information about their social background to identify the problem and offer solutions. "Sometimes we discover cases online. If someone tells you he or she has not been out of the house for a year or a few months or that they have not been eating for a few weeks, we immediately ask the callers or their families to rush to the nearest hospital, said Sedki. She explained that the hotline has proved its efficacy in rural areas where there is ignorance about psychiatric care. Sedki said: "This is typical of the countryside where people continue to treat epileptics, for example, by beating the patient because they think the malady was caused by jinn that possess them. "The anonymity of the line has also encouraged many of the villagers to air their problems and complaints. Many still believe that such problems can be addressed under the umbrella of the extended family. But more often than not these problems are usually dealt with in the wrong way and solutions usually aggravate matters rather than ease them, she notes. "Counseling has really proven important there, she noted. The hotline receives cases that a team consisting of a social worker, a psychologist and a psychiatrist attend to. The psychiatrist offers behavioral, chemical treatment or both. According to officials, the hotline needs more publicity, especially in places like sports clubs and shopping malls that are frequented by hundreds of people. "The hotline is one step towards taking psychiatric care seriously at a time when there is a real need for it, remarked Sedki.
