site.btaWHO Representative for Bulgaria Assoc. Prof. Okoliyski Discusses Mental Health in the Country

Half of all instances of mental illness start around the age of 14, and the prevalence of depression doubles among people over the age of 65, but in Bulgaria access to prevention services is low, said by Assoc. Prof. Mihail Okoliyski, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative for Bulgaria. He was speaking during an online discussion, on the topic: "A Look at Mental Health with a Focus on Depression", organized at the initiative of the WHO, with the assistance of non-governmental organizations.

There is less than one mental health specialist for every 10,000 people in the world, said Assoc. Prof. Okoliyski. According to him, funding for mental health is less than one per cent of the health budget.

Since the first attempts to establish mental health services in this country, there has been a lack of good communication between the responsible institutions.
Psycho-social rehabilitation centres should be close to settlements, added Assoc. Prof. Okoliyski.

According to him, in the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, no has payed attention to the mental state of the frontline workers, and they are at a very high risk of burnout. Such is the case with the mental state of the elderly people who are stuck at home, he added.

The National Plan for Recovery and Resilience envisages modernization and development of psychiatric care, with 30 million leva. The national strategy for mental health will be supported, said Assoc. Prof. Okoliyski. The strategy involves the development of various services in the community, training, coordination of social and health care fields. The other key aspect is the establishment of health education for children from 1st to 12th grade, with so that they can gain knowledge and skills to deal with relationship crises, to know how to protect themselves from adverse influences, as well as knowledge regarding depression, added Assoc. Prof. Okoliyski.