The Ministry of Health and Population said that the Mental Health Secretariat hospitals provide counseling and psychological support in complete privacy and confidentiality, and for free, through the first electronic national platform in Egypt for mental health services and addiction treatment.
Dr. Manen Abdel-Maksoud, Head of the General Secretariat for Mental Health and Addiction Treatment, explained that the platform aims to provide free government services for mental health and addiction treatment, for all age groups of Egyptians and non-Egyptians residing on the land of Egypt, noting that the platform is the first of its kind in the Sharq region. It is one of the fruits of cooperation between the General Secretariat for Mental Health and Addiction Treatment, the National Information Center at the Ministry of Health and Population, the World Health Organization, and the University of British Columbia in Canada. addiction.
Manan Abdel-Maqsoud added that the use of electronic services in the field of mental health will greatly contribute to obtaining high-quality, confidential and confidential counseling and psychological support, overcoming the stigma related to mental disorders in society, correcting misconceptions and providing sound information for all.
The platform includes three main sections. The first section provides educational and awareness content to users by providing important scientific information regarding common disorders in general psychiatry and its specialized branches, such as child and adolescent psychiatry, the elderly and addiction. The platform also deals with symptoms and mechanisms of dealing with psychological crises facing patients and their families. It also displays the services available at the General Secretariat for Mental Health and Addiction Treatment, such as introducing the hospitals and centers affiliated with the Secretariat, locations and appointments of specialized clinics and awareness campaigns.
The second section includes providing psychological support and counseling services through virtual clinics “telemedicine” through a few simple steps that enable users to assess their psychological condition through the general mental health questionnaire, as well as booking a session with qualified psychotherapists, where the user chooses the appropriate place and time to perform The session is in complete privacy and confidentiality of users’ data, and both the therapist and the user, through his control panel, can evaluate the level of the session, and it also allows the therapist to transfer emergency cases to the hotline of the General Secretariat of Mental Health and Addiction Treatment for speedy immediate intervention, and the patient can see On diagnosing his condition that the therapist recorded in addition to sharing his own experience with others and benefiting from their experiences.
The third section is concerned with the site’s supervisors and administrators, where they can monitor and evaluate the platform’s performance, and it presents the most important reports on the portal’s statistics such as the number of users, their age, follow-up rate, the most visited specialties and other data.
