Kihineh?: Mental health and preventing substance abuse

Mental health is psychological and social well-being. It is part of what it means to be healthy. It affects how a young person exists and interacts within a community.

Mental health and well-being are an essential foundation for living a fulfilling life.

There are many threats to positive mental health: family issues, living conditions, academic pressure, disruptions to daily life. Sometimes the causes are more extreme: poverty, violence, conflict, climate and environmental disasters. Substance use – alcohol, tobacco or drugs – also can harm a young person’s mental health and well-being.

Around the world, mental health disorders are a significant cause of suffering for children – a cause that is often ignored. Globally about one in seven adolescents struggle with a diagnosed mental disorder. About 46,000 die from suicide each year.

In Maldives, young people say that mental health and well-being is at the top of their list of concerns. The COVID-19 pandemic – with lockdowns and disruptions to routines and comforts of daily life – both added strain and brought the issue to the forefront of many minds.

How are you?

Kihineh? In Dhivehi, it can be a question: How are you?

Are you OK?

Really, are you OK?

These questions can be the start of the conversation about children and young people’s mental health.  They are question that parents and caregivers need to ask their children. They are questions that young people need to ask themselves and each other.

UNICEF Maldives is asking the questions as part of the Kihineh flagship initiative. The flagship promotes mental health and psychosocial well-being and aims to prevent substance abuse. It focuses on three goals:

• Reducing stigma associated with mental health disorders and substance abuse
• Building individual and community resilience
• Strengthening detection and rapid response services

Key interventions for the flagship will include: establishing helpline services, bolstering referral services for mental health and psychosocial support, and providing training in mental health and well-being training for school personnel and drug counsellors.