Mr Albert McCarthy, Co-Founder and members of Be Positive Bipolar Self Help Malta
Dear friends,
I thank you for giving me the honour to be with you as you launch a new website of the Be Positive Bipolar Self Help Malta.
I commend you for the launch of your website, which shall certainly touch the lives of many citizens of these islands.
I will now speak with you about the need for renewed emphasis on issues of mental health in Malta, and the importance of solidarity in achieving authentic change.
Creating awareness and respectful discussion around these issues is one of the most serious challenges we face in our communities. It may appear a divisive and disruptive subject. However, mental health should bring us together — both in securing sustainable mental health and wellbeing for all, and addressing issues of relative concern.
Society as a whole is affected by issues of mental health. Individuals and families, regardless of age, social status, faith tradition or ethnicity, find themselves in precarious situations where access to support sometimes seem out of reach.
Mental disorders and conditions can strike anyone, with potential long-term repercussions in an individual’s life.
The challenge of mental health, and achieving wellbeing in this sphere, cannot be ignored. Within our roles as civil society actors, as service providers and users, as policy makers and activists, we must find spaces for mutual enrichment and solidarity. We must not allow ourselves to be divided, to be silent, and to hide from difficult truths. Rather, it is our duty to make sure that the challenge of mental health becomes a priority on the national agenda.
A step in this direction has been made through my Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society, which facilitates a national Platform for Mental Health. This platform includes representation from NGOs across the country, working for mental health advocacy.
I invite your participation in the activities of this platform, and its goals to eradicate strategies of stigma and prioritise the voices of people with mental health conditions, and their caregivers.
Many of the citizens of this country who have experienced or are experiencing mental health issues are still victims of an oppressive silence. Their lived experiences are not given the space and dignity they deserve. Therefore, we must create spaces where persons with a history of problematic mental health are seen and celebrated in their full humanity.
Mothers who struggle with post-natal depression; people who face anxiety in the workplace; young people enduring bullying in schools; minority communities who must deal with higher risks of certain conditions; friends and family members whose experiences of bipolar disorder pose their own particular challenges.
These are the realities of our society, and we must ask ourselves whether we are doing all we can to build a culture that supports, nurtures, and connects individuals, both within their communities and with extended circles of care.
We must, as a country, develop the proper strategy to implement the responsibilities which emanate from our Mental Health Act, to take effective initiatives for more services in the community for people with mental health problems.
We need to strive further towards the de-institutionalisation of people with mental health problems. Besides the development of community-based initiatives in mental health, there is the urgent need to upgrade and modernize mental health institutions, both aesthetically, and in the way they operate.
According to the World Health Organisation, one in four human beings will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives. Some 450 million people currently suffer from such conditions, ranging in severity from catastrophic crisis to less obvious, but no less important, manifestations.
We must wonder whether, as the pace of our lives and the pressures we face increase, the risk of mental illness is not itself becoming greater. Social inequality, the breakdown of community relationships, and high-pressure working environments are all contributing factors.
An immediate question comes to mind within this context:
How, then, can we discover healthy and life-affirming spaces within our homes and workplaces, our schools and institutions? There is a clear need for digital forms of connection, alongside face-to-face communication. We must be innovative and develop creative approaches. We must never allow people struggling with issues of mental health to feel abandoned and alone.
If it is not you yourself who is struggling, it may be your parent or sibling, your friend or a loved one.
We must recognise that their health and wellbeing is not an isolated issue, but a matter of deep social importance. The World Health Organisation also predicts that, by 2030, depression will be the leading cause of disease, either physical or mental, around the world. Hence, we must be pro-active.
We must recognise that people living with mental illnesses are also at risk of having their physical health undermined, too. This health challenge has gone inadequately addressed for too long. It is therefore vital that we find ways of building the resilience of our communities, in the face of these realities.
We must come together to fight the taboo. We must empower individuals to share their stories, to feel respected and safe in their histories, and to be an inspiration and a guide for those who live in fear. And let me take this moment to thank those people, both public and private individuals, who have found the courage to share their stories.
The media has its own crucial role to play in breaking cycles of stigma.
Let us congratulate journalists who are able to report on issues of mental health in ways that are not sensationalist or exploitative. It is this slow process, of replacing narratives of scepticism and abuse with a stronger truth of respect and care that shall have the most enduring legacy in our national journey towards improved mental health.
The fight against racism, against sexism, against homophobia and transphobia, has shown that our country is capable of change. We are strong enough to reject to the voices of hatred. We are capable of speaking more loudly with our own language of wellbeing.
Let us fight against intolerance, and reject the prejudice suffered by some people with mental illnesses. We must also confront the unspoken discrimination that sees certain individuals excluded from the workplace, or from active participation in society.
The social fabric of our islands has been damaged by intolerance and exclusion for too long. It is time to change.
We must encourage increased training in mental health, by building on the knowledge of service providers and by assuring the public that they will be treated professionally and respectfully.
We must commit ourselves to achieving an equality of concern between issues of physical health and issues of mental health. Both must be seen as equally essential to a healthy society, and of equal importance. This will involve a deep rooted transformation in our societies. It demands a reorientation of the ways we understand, speak about, and care for issues of mental health.
In conclusion, let us affirm that the time has come to confront this serious problem within our communities and within our nation. We ignore the challenge of mental health in the twenty-first century at our own risk, and at the risk of future generations.
Again, a couple of pertinent questions come to mind.
How can schools prepare children and young people for the demands of life, if their mental wellbeing is not a top priority?
How can we claim to live in an inclusive society if we do not speak out against prejudice, and strive to end the stigma associated with mental illness?
We may not always be able to end mental illness itself, but we are able to change the culture in which it exists. It is our chance, at this moment in the history of the Maltese Islands, to insist that everyone’s dignity and fundamental rights are respected.
No one, regardless of their illness, should feel ashamed. This is the promise of wellbeing that we must achieve, throughout our lives, and in the lives of our families and communities.
Thank you.