The Minister of Health Abdelhak Sayhi called, Monday in Algiers, for all actors to “redouble efforts” to achieve the goals set in the field of improving mental health.
In a speech he delivered during his supervision of the celebration of the World Mental Health Day, Mr. Sayhi indicated that the promotion of mental health is a “priority” and this is evidenced by the measures taken and which “will be supported”, calling on the occasion all actors from public authorities and professionals as well as partner sectors and civil society to “redouble efforts to achieve the goals set to improve mental health.”
He stressed that the celebration of World Mental Health Day comes this year in a “special context of the decline” of the Covid-19 pandemic, he also highlighted that this pandemic “will have a significant psychological impact that requires more efforts for the psychological support of patients and their families, as well as health staff.”
Mr. Sayhi underlined that Algeria included in its constitution “the right of citizens to protect their health” and has made “important investments since independence to provide integrated health care for all,” stressing in the same context that mental health is a “fundamental right” as it is “one of the concerns of public health as confirmed by the Health Law.”
For his part, the representative of the World Health Organization in Algeria, Mr. Nohoua Madou, said that Algeria is “on the right path” with regard to mental health care, noting that the celebration of this day, which comes this year under the slogan “Mental Health for All”, is an occasion to highlight the challenges facing mental health.
