Department of Mental Health signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Ooca in the collaboration to provide online mental health counseling to undergraduate students in public universities under the Wall of Sharing Project.  Ooca, a private organization employing technology in the provision of mental healthcare services, has increased online counseling platform to reduce the risk of depression and suicides in children and adolescents.

In an interview after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for Wall of Sharing Project between the Department of Mental Health, Ministry of Public Health and Ooca for the provision of online mental health consultation by psychiatrists and psychologists in the pilot project to provide online consultation via video conference to students in public universities, Dr Kiattibhum Wongrajit, Director-General of the Department of Mental Health, provided that at present the situation of depression in the society is a major health problem that is entirely curable but if left untreated, depression may escalate and ultimately lead to suicide. Patients with depression have 20 times higher risk of committing suicide than people in general.  In 2019, the rate of suicide in Thailand among all demographic groups is at 6 persons per hour with children and adolescents in the age group of 15-24 years old constituting 300 suicide cases per year.  Moreover, the statistics show that there are 11 adolescents with depression among every 100 people with depression and there are 3 adolescents with depression among every 100 adolescents.

The 150 participants were from the public and private sectors including interested general public and the members of the press. Inspirational talks were given at the event by Miss Sai Intira Charoenpura, actress, author and also a patient with depression taking care of another patient with depression, and also Dr. Asawin Nakpongpan, children and adolescents psychiatrist and author of the page “Growing up Normal”.  The event also involved a panel discussion by the panelists being policymakers from the public sector, owner of an application providing online mental health consultation, a representative from the private sector providing support to the Project and representative from children and adolescents group.

The Director-General of the Department of Health also stated that the Department of Health has been providing mental health phone consultation through the 1323 hotline for a long time.  Currently, the service has the capacity to take 200,000 cases, which constitute one-fourth of more than 800,000 calls received per year.  With regards to the adolescent group, it was found in 2018 that the top 5 most common mental health issues relating to which adolescents called to seek mental health consultation were 1. Being in stressful condition or under pressure, 2. Relationships problems, 3. Gender-related issues or substance abuse, 4. Being in the state of depression, suicidal and harmful to others and 5. Lack of family understanding. In the overview, adolescents still have limited access to mental healthcare with only 9,000 calls received in 2018. Therefore, the development of a channel to provide help and care to children and adolescents for the betterment of their mental health is an important mission of the organization and is the starting point of the collaboration and signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for Wall of Sharing Project with Ooca, the private organization employing technology for the provision of mental health consultation which will enable children and adolescents to make appointments and meet with psychiatrists and psychologists through online means via smartphones and computers. The service will be provided in a virtual hospital or online hospital which is more convenient and does not require any traveling, the time can be chosen and high privacy will be provided with more than 50 psychiatrists and psychologists.

Dr. Dutsadee Juengsiragulwit, Director of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Rajanagarindra Institute, Bangkok, also added that the Wall of Sharing Project is supported by the Institute, Department of Public Health together with the private sector and started its project with the university students as the first group. It is planned that the service will be expanded to cover children and adolescents within the age group of 10-24 years old in the future. Undergraduate students in public universities can access the service through the online hospital platform without any charges.  This will allow adolescents to actually open up about their feelings and stresses under the care and supervision of academically certified experts who will be providing psychological consultation, attending to and analyzing the issues without offering a personal opinion or any judgment.  The referral system has also been developed to hospital and healthcare facilities to furtherance the care for the more severe and chronic cases with the support from the private sector, foundations, civil society organizations and Thai Health.

Dr. Kanpassorn Suriyasangpetch, Executive Director of Ooca also stated that the provision of online mental health counseling will be another channel for children and adolescents to seek consultation with an expert in an easy and comfortable environment.  The society issues regarding mental health do not involve only depression but also the pre-depression stage as well.  We would like to create a mindset where discussion and consultation with psychiatrists and psychologists are perceived by the general public as normal and even the most general day-to-day events are welcomed and creating this understanding from early on since school or university age is essential.  The project requires funding from the private sector in terms of the budget which will be used as the compensation for the psychiatrists and psychologists. Currently, we have been provided with generous support from Siam Commercial Bank PLC and True Corporation PLC.

Dr. Kanpassorn Suriyasangpetch also added that “Ooca is the application that can help our society through the expansion of our technological services.  Part of the fees received from service users through normal channels will be proportionately used to support the expenses incurred from providing care to students from the Wall of Sharing Project. We are proud and honoured to be collaborating with the Department of Mental Health and be part of the use of technology to resolve societal issues”.

Additionally, for any universities or educational institutions that are interested in joining the Wall of Sharing Project for the provision of online mental health consultation to university students, please contact [email protected].

For the general public who would like to contribute to the expansion of the service coverage to more university students, the online donation is available at www.wallofsharing.com.