More sought psychiatric care
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Three million patients sought psychiatric care in 2010, with the case numbers on the rise, especially for depression, Deputy Public Health Minister Surawit Khonsomboon said yesterday.
By 2016, the government’s mental-health promotion plan aims for 70 per cent of Thais to have good mental health, Surawit said. The plan also calls for 70 per cent of Thai children to have up-to-standard emotional and intelligence-quotient levels, a lowering of the suicide rate to under 6.5 per 100,000 people, and 80 per cent of psychiatric patients to be treated.
Surawit also announced the donation of 47 rai (7.5 hectares) of land from Boon Chartpanich in Phitsanulok’s Wang Thong district. Plans are to build the 200-bed Phitsanulok Psychiatric Hospital at a cost of Bt360 million. Construction will begin in 2014.
