H.Appi strives to change societal views on addiction and mental health by removing the stigma and stopping discrimination. We work on building a safe environment for every individual to make a personalized recovery journey possible. Through education, research, and medical care we positively change society, and help affected individuals recover with integrity and dignity. One in ten people in the
world suffer from a mental health illness. Although this statistic may seem inflated, it is in fact a very conservative estimate considering that many people suffering from a mental health illness often go unnoticed (1). The majority of people affected by addiction and mental health (AMH) in the Middle East and African (MEA) regions do not receive the much-needed help mainly due to underfunding, stigmatization, and the lack of medical care (1). Without a doubt, dealing with mental health is a worldwide issue. Part of what makes mental health’s education, research and medical care so challenging is that conditions are often invisible to the naked eye. Although AMH illnesses are not physical disabilities, they are disabilities nonetheless, that have profound effects on people. Education and proper training to medical staff, family members, patients and the general public is the key to begin the process of destigmitization (2). In the United Arab Emirates, only 38% of those surveyed would seek psychiatric help if their children were presented with mental health problems (27). In Egypt, 56.6% of people surveyed would not accept a person suffering from psychosis as a family member; and 85.5% would not accept a person suffering from psychosis to be their schoolteacher (28). Stigmatization is not gender specific in these regions, it is equally common within both genders (29,30,31,32). In Saudi Arabia, descrimatory behaviour against patients suffering from mental illnesses stems from the thought that the person is dangerous (33). Only three countries in the Middle East have provided information regarding their mental health expenditures as a percent of their total health expenditures, and the results are dismal: Palestine (2.5%), Qatar (1%), and Egypt (less than 1%) (34). Iraq, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Syria and Yemen have fewer than 0.5 psychiatrists per 100,000 people; while the number of psychiatric nurses per 100,000 people in Bahrain is 23; 22.5 in the Emirates; 0.09 in Yemen; and 0.03 in Somalia (34).
