KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20 \u2014 Nearly one-third of Malaysians who want mental health support are held back by high costs, according to new survey findings.<\/p>\n
The report, produced by fintech app Versa in collaboration with stratsea, analysed responses from 1,500 users on their emotional wellbeing and help-seeking behaviour.<\/p>\n
It found that 925 respondents were open to professional help such as therapy or counselling.<\/p>\n
However, 422 respondents cited the cost of treatment as their biggest barrier, while others struggled to navigate the system or make time for appointments.<\/p>\n
According to the report, 337 respondents did not know where to start when seeking help, and 327 said work or family commitments made it hard to access services.<\/p>\n
Self-reliance also remained strong, with 522 respondents believing they could \u201cmanage on their own\u201d.<\/p>\n
The report noted that many respondents coped by distracting themselves, speaking to family members or withdrawing socially.<\/p>\n
It warned that such strategies may mask deeper issues if individuals avoid professional care.<\/p>\n
The survey also found that Malaysians face rising emotional strain, with anxiety emerging as the most frequently reported emotion.<\/p>\n
Work or study demands, financial pressures and uncertainty about the future were identified as the country\u2019s biggest stressors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis phenomenon culminates in high academic pressures for students to outperform peers in seeking suitable jobs, often limited in supply,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n
It concluded that improving affordability, visibility and trust in mental health services would be key to encouraging more Malaysians to seek timely support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20 \u2014 Nearly one-third of Malaysians who want mental health support are held back by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[157681,97,157680,259,260,157682],"class_list":{"0":"post-303412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-emotional-wellbeing","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-malaysians","11":"tag-mental-health","12":"tag-mentalhealth","13":"tag-survey-findings"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}