Officers and employees at the Ministry of Health and Population and the Department of Health Services will receive training on coping with mental health problems.

Officials hope that the training will help employees understand common mental health conditions and identify warning signs of depression, anxiety, stress and other psychological issues.

“Employees are human beings too and can suffer from various health conditions, including mental health conditions,” said Dr Pomawati Thapa, chief of the Non-communicable Disease and Mental Health Section at the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division. “We have planned to impart one-day training to the employees at the Health Ministry and the Department of Health Services.”

Officials say that 80 of the 160 employees serving at the Health Ministry and at the Department of Health Services will receive training first, and the rest will receive it another day. They say the training would be provided to employees of other ministries only if they get positive results from the training imparted to Health Ministry officials.

Studies carried out in the past show that the majority of government officials at Singha Durbar suffered from multiple health complications such as hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, kidney diseases, anxiety and depression. Health problems could have been exacerbated since the workplace environment hasn’t improved, the studies showed.

Singha Durbar is the country’s federal administrative heart where most ministries and important government offices are located. Reports show that many civil servants are unaware of their health ailments.

Doctors say a sedentary lifestyle, poor eating habits and stress contribute to the health crisis among government employees. They advise employees to visit a hospital if they feel something is wrong with their health.

Of late, noncommunicable diseases have emerged as the leading killers in Nepal, and its reflection can also be seen among government employees.

A 2019 study by the Nepal Health Research Council on the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases found that the diseases accounted for 71 percent of the country's deaths.

The study shows that hypertension, diabetes, renal malfunction, liver problems, heart issues and cervical cancer are responsible for the majority of morbidity and mortality in Nepal.

The findings showed that the leading risk factor of death in 2019 was smoking, whose attributable death was 17.7 percent, followed by high systolic blood pressure at 12.3 percent, household air pollution at 11.2 percent, ambient air pollution at 9.3 percent, diabetes at 8 percent, and high cholesterol and kidney dysfunction, among others.

The study was primarily focused on behavioural risk factors, including tobacco and alcohol consumption, and biological risk factors—raised blood pressure, heavyweight, obesity, abnormal lipid prevalence, coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes.

To address the growing burden of non-communicable diseases, the government has previously announced that it will carry out free screening of non-communicable diseases of people over 40. However, the programme has not yet been started.

Public health experts say the increase in non-communicable diseases is a global phenomenon, but developing countries like Nepal have been facing a double burden.

They say that many lives can be saved if people are screened for non-communicable diseases for free.