Mental health refers to a person’s condition with regard to their emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It reflects the way we think, behave and feel (Mentalhealth.gov, 2019).

Mental health is just as crucial for the well-being of individuals as physical and social health. As we grow older and start understanding about life and relationships, the real importance of mental well-being reveals itself, and it becomes very clear how important is it to have a good mental state. Unfortunately, most people in the world do not give appropriate significance and attention to mental health as they do to physical health (World Health Organization, 2003).

 

Mental health is the mental state of well-being which encourages human beings to understand themselves and their potential, realize their own abilities, deal well with the routine tensions of life, give full productivity to their work and hence contribute in the goodness of their habitat and society (World Health Organization, 2003).

Mental illnesses are health conditions involving changes in emotion, thinking or behavior (or a combination of these) and associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities.
Mental disorders or mental illnesses are the conditions which severely affect a person’s thought process, feelings, mood, and behaviors (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2019).
These mental health issues can be caused by any reason, especially when something sad or unexpected happens and they may be very temporary or chronic and long term. Moreover, these disorders have a bad impact on the ability to function in the routine and in interactions with other people. 

These mental issues turn to serious disorders when the causes of this disturbance begin to have an impact on the everyday life of the affected person and become a reason for frequent and painful stress for the victim. In these situations, the functionality of the human body and brain depreciates. 
From the past few years, the trend of mental therapies and counseling is becoming very popular and more and more people have started to understand the importance of mental therapy in an average life. 

When anxiety and stress become a painful routine in the everyday life of an individual and the signs and symptoms of stress keep repeating themselves, then that person will have a high probability of being affected by a serious mental health disorder. Therefore, these conditions should not be ignored, and the patient should immediately seek for medical help.
Prolonging and ignoring these conditions may lead to dangerous problems which can have long term and profound effects on the personal and professional lives of the patients.
In most of the cases, these disorders can be handled through therapeutic sessions in which the doctor talks out the problems with the patient and make them strong enough to survive through these issues.
If the disorders have crossed a particular stage, medication is required to help the victim get out of the painful mental state because these disorders do not improve or vanish on their own.
Keeping them untreated and unattended can cause worse effects and irrevocable problems.

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The Most Common Mental Health Disorders

The most common mental health disorders among the youth worldwide are: 

• Anxiety disorders which include panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder, traumatic stress or anxiety, various phobias.

• Depression 

• Bipolar disorder and other mood-related disorders

• Anorexia Nervosa and other eating disorders

• Personality disorders 

• Psychotic disorders (for example, schizophrenia)

• Acute Stress Disorder

• Agoraphobia

• Amnesia, Dissociative

• Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (Dual Diagnosis, 2019) (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2003)

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Depression is the most common mental health disorder, affecting an estimated amount of 300 million people around the world, and although rarer in children it is becoming more evident in adolescents (Webster, 2017) (DuBois-Maahs, 2018).
It is believed that women become victims of severe depression more often and quickly than men because of their sensitive and vulnerable nature. 

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Symptoms of Mental Health Disorders

Signs of mental health disorders can vary with the condition of the victim and the disorder (Dual Diagnosis, 2019).
A few very common symptoms whose persistence means the existence of mental illness are mentioned below: 

• Feeling continuously sad and depressed and its persistence for many days. 

• Confused and distorted thinking and not being able to make decisions. 

• Feeling guilty and embarrassed for unknown reasons and feeling blamed. 

• Sleep deprivation, insomnia, or persistence of irregular sleeping patterns. 

• Addiction to alcohol or drugs. 

• Major highs and lows in eating habits, excessive or zero appetites. 

• Excessive feeling of fury or violence and suicidal thoughts are the major symptoms of severe mental health issues.

Other than the common symptoms already mentioned, children, adolescents, and youth may show more significant signs of mental disorders (Dryden-Edwards, 2018).
These signs include: 

• Poor academic performance and results 

• Persevering boredom 

• Frequent physical complains like headaches, stomachaches 

• Sleep and appetite problems and changes (Dryden-Edwards, 2018) 

• Social withdrawal 

• Continuous bad mood for many days 

• Persisted anger, frustration, depression and irritability (DualDiagnosis, 2019)
  
   

Mental Health Issues in the UAE

In 2010, depression and anxiety disorders were by far the most common mental illnesses in the Middle East.
Psychologist Marsha D. Brown, PhD, explained that “in some communities and/or cultures, mental illness is not something that is discussed outside the family, let alone with an outsider, such as a mental health professional” (Tello, 2018). 

The UAE is also one of those countries where 80 percent of the population is considered to be affected by depression (Zaman, 2018) of which 4 percent of the country’s population is clinically depressed due to the monotonous lives and exhausting lifestyles (Adams, 2016).
The World Health Organization once citied that the UAE has the highest regional level of depression, at 5.1 percent of the population. The Emirates also ranks highly for anxiety in the WHO’s tables, with 4.1 percent of people admitting to a problem; and in 2015, the UAE cases were 444,016 cases of depression reported at primary health centers, while 354,199 people sought help for anxiety.

Youth has become very vulnerable to depression and anxiety due to the major causes of body shaming, abuse, and addiction. Academic stress and busy routines of academic institutions also play a role in the mental illness of youth (Chaudhary, 2016).
There are various organizations offering rehabilitation and helping hand to the students, but since UAE is a country with a large number of people who are expats, it becomes very difficult for them to access these services due to high costs.

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Current State of Mental Health Facilities in the UAE

The World Health Organization’s “Mental Health Atlas” is a report designed to collect data on mental health resources and facilities in different countries. This report features categories such as medicine, information systems, human resources, mental health policies, plans, financing and care delivery. All such resources are vital to providing services and care for patients of mental disorders.

The total health expenditure per person in the UAE is not reported; lack of provided information indicated that the mental health sector in the country does not have a strong infrastructure. Many other subcategories that are missing due to not being reported in the document are: 

• The government’s total expenditure on mental health as a % of total government health expenditure 

• Total number of child psychiatrist (gov. and non-gov.) 

• Number of visits made by service users in the last year in other outpatient facility (e.g. Mental health day care or treatment facility) 

• Number of visits made by service users in the last year in outpatient facility specifically for children and adolescents (including services for developmental disorders) 

• Treated cases of severe mental disorders 
   

The report also states that the United Arab Emirates does not have a suicide prevention strategy as an integrated national policy adopted by the government. A piece of data worth noting in the mental health workforce section is that there are 0.3 psychiatrists per 100,000 population.
This shows a great deficiency of workers in mental health sector. In comparison, there are 14.63 per 100,000 in the UK and 12.4 per 100,000 in the US.
According to an article by The National newspaper (2017), doctors say that the UAE is in need of psychiatric and rehabilitation facilities in both the public and private sectors, and an increase in staff members. Doctors also believe that the stigma linked to mental health issues persists in the UAE, therefore an increase in the amount of facilities will help weaken the stigma.

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Currently Ongoing Initiatives 

The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) announced in April of 2018 a new mental health agenda, in recognition of the rising prevalence of mental health disorders. The comprehensive mental health strategy is titled “Happy Lives, Healthy Communities” and it was implemented due to a rising demand for mental health services in both the private and public sectors. 

Anxiety, mood disorders, psychotic disorders and behavioral and emotional disorders account for 88 percent of outpatient diagnoses at DHA facilities, according to the chairman of the board and director general of DHA, Humaid Mohammad Obaid Al Qutami.
The agenda comprises of 10 main initiatives, set to be achieved by the year 2021, which include: conductive intensive research in the mental health sector, training medical staff working in the field, raising awareness in the community, etc. 

In August 2018, a campaign titled #mymindmatters was launched by a pioneering group of Emirati women, who hoped to tackle the stigma of mental health issues in the UAE and that nobody suffers in silence. The organization has also held workshops and talks at hospitals and hosted major exhibitions to highlight their efforts in Dubai. Indeed, there is also a specific agenda aiming to make Dubai the happiest city on earth, called the “Happiness Agenda”, which was enforced by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
The approach of the campaign lies within prioritizing happiness as a primary objective of Dubai’s ongoing smart transformation; however, it is set through the theme of practicality and convenience, referred to as “basic needs”, while mental health issues are referred to as “higher needs”. 
According to the official website: “Provision for basic needs will have an immediate, pragmatic and tangible value for customers. Good customer experience design, as an example, can reduce stress for customers while delivering essential services efficiently easily.”

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Factors Contributing to Mental Health Disorders in the UAE

Loneliness, financial worries, and anxiety over ever-demanding jobs put many in the professional workforce under s a strain that could lead to long-lasting mental health problems (M. Mannan, 2017).
There are many different aspects that contribute to mental health disorders; we will analyze some of the main social issues in the United Arab Emirates:

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• Pretention life and flaunting wealth and activities on social media (Dubai as a toxic environment)
  A majority of influencers were inspired to become social media personalities to make an impact and drive real change in consumer behavior and attitude in the UAE. Only few of them had success; however, the real motives behind their success are the fame and money in order to advertise themselves and to make themselves feel morally superior to the others. 

• Instagram and Facebook Comparison
  Instagram is the most detrimental social networking app for young people's mental health. Social media is a relatively new experience for the human psyche and since social networks are becoming more ingrained in people’s lives, it is vital that we understand the full impact each social network has on our mental health. 
  Facebook has acknowledged that social media use can be bad for users’ mental health; in fact, the company is pressured from a growing chorus of critics raising alarms about the platform’s effect on society. As previously mentioned, the two most common mental health issues the doctor deals with are depression and anxiety. 

• Obesity and depression
  Obesity is quickly expanding among the youth in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) due to their poor lifestyle that is affected by working for long hours, the lack of activity during hot weather, and the availability of many fast food choices.
  According to Gulf News, the director of clinical nutrition department at Dubai Health Authority lists that 40 percent of teenagers between 11 and 16 years old and 20 percent of children under the age of 11 in the UAE are obese.
  This study determines the prevalence of depression and its relation with obesity in the UAE. According to the methods of albayan.ae, the results of the child obesity is affecting healthily and psychologically by causing long term depression because the child may feel embarrassed in front of his friends due to its lack of ability to run and move like the rest of the kids. (Geranpayeh, 2018) 

• Multiculturalism
  The UAE brings together many nationalities based on different traditions. Patterns of behavior, thinking, expression and all cultural practices are transmitted in multiple ways among the different nationalities across multiple channels.
  Communities residing in the country organize cultural events and activities on official occasions and represent their cultural patterns and symbols of heritage; this reflects the richness of each culture in the UAE.

 

FIGURE 2 – EXPAT POPULATION IN THE UAE 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2018, Global Media Insight (Figure 2) calculates 88.52 percent as the total expat population with a percentage of 27.49 from India, 12.69 percent from Pakistan, 7.40 percent from Bangladesh, 5.56 percent from Philippines and other minorities.

• Lack of Job Security in the UAE
  The fear of losing a job is a top concern in the UAE. Analysts say that while it is understandable to see people worrying about employment security, the threat of a job loss is more real in certain sectors than in others.
  "Employment rates rise and fall in every nation, and the UAE is no different. At present, job security fears are not entirely unfounded in certain sectors of the economy, but are no cause for concern in others," said Rajiv Ramanathan, associate partner for human resources consulting company Aon Hewitt (C. Maceda, 2015).
  More than 40 per cent of UAE residents are less confident about their financial status than a year ago as concerns surrounding the cost of living and job security increase, according to Yallacompare’s consumer confidence tracker (Albawada, 2018).
  Many individuals would always look for jobs even if the salaries are too low; hence, work-related stress may result from this condition and it can have a long-term impact on the employee. This situation may lead to stress, high blood pressure, lack of energy, sleeping problems and sugar and cortisol imbalance. 

• Foreignness and Isolation
  Relationship and family issues as well as sexual, financial, and physical problems often lead young adults into isolation when not addressed (M. Mannan, 2017).
  In particular, due to the lack of good working conditions and/or opportunities in their own country, individuals are forced to travel abroad and look up for their future within the traditional concept of the relationship of "home" and "family”.
  According to the national.ae magazine, in the United Arab Emirates a lot of people suffer from isolation and foreignness which causes psychological issues, such as depression. This mental condition may lead to committing suicide or giving up on staying far from home, so individuals decide to go back to their own country.
  The UAE provides many job opportunities, but this way of living requires to get used to living alone far from home. This is the case of young people who move to find better job opportunities far from their family.

• Generational gap in relation to the high rate of expats
  The term “Generational Gap” refers to how younger generations conflict with their parents when it comes to career choice, taste in music, political affiliations and other lifestyle choices. However, for many expat and local millennials in UAE, it refers to the phenomenon where children of expat parents adapt to a new culture faster and in a different way than their parents, which often leads to feeling personal guilt for straying away from indoctrinated morals and traditions, and also unhealthy relationships with parents if they are unaccepting it. This is most likely to occur in a country such as the United Arab Emirates as it fosters more than 90 nationalities (Psychologybenefits.org, 2019).

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