Access to mental health support will probably continue to improve following legal amendments to decriminalise attempted suicide, experts have said.
The UAE announced the removal of criminal liability in an amendment to the country's Crimes and Penalties Law on Thursday.
Previous legislation in 2020 gave judges the discretion to offer mental health treatment as an alternative to prison, although there had been confusion over the legal ramifications for people who tried to take their own lives.
The change is expected to improve the chances of early intervention, ensuring care and support is given when needed to bolster suicide prevention.
Dr Tina Mistry is a clinical psychologist and corporate wellbeing director at Al Kalma, a mental health platform in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. She said the legal change was a positive step.
“The recent amendment decriminalising attempted suicide shows a real commitment to supporting people with mental health difficulties,” she said. “Until now, fear of a criminal case stopped many people from saying they were having suicidal thoughts.
“Removing that fear should make it easier for people in distress to speak up and get help early.”
Early intervention crucial
Early intervention is viewed as critical when signs of depression and anxiety appear, to prevent symptoms from deepening or developing into suicidal thoughts.
Mental health services have been steadily improving in recent years.
As more mental health and workplace wellbeing programmes have appeared in the corporate world, insurers have added mental health care to their coverage.
Saudi German Hospital Dubai is one of the providers launching an on-site specialist mental health and wellness hub to coincide with World Mental Health Day on October 10.
It is designed to end the fragmented experience many families face when navigating mental health care by bringing specialists together around a single shared care plan.
Dr Ahmed Eissa, a psychiatrist and chief executive of Saudi German Health UAE, hopes the centre can help with early intervention.
“There are a lot of people suffering without having the right support, drug diagnosis or services,” he said.
“Part of it is related to the stigma itself of going into mental health facilities, the affordability and the number of healthcare providers in the field of mental health. For some, they have days of anxiety, stress, work burnout or marital and relationship, challenges.
“If we can provide the service that will help the whole family as a unit of the community, this is the core objective of the hub itself.”
Service access
Services for adults and older people include psychiatric assessment, medication management and individual therapy.
It also offers treatment for depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and related conditions, as well as geriatric psychiatry, addiction support and family counselling.
Recruitment of mental health specialists for the hub had been a challenge. “If we are talking about integrating the mental health team here, most front lines are related to nursing, so they should be trained very well," said Dr Eissa.
“There is scarcity in mental health personnel, so we need to train most of the healthcare providers in all levels so that they act like filters.
“Recruiting psychiatrists and specialists to come here was a little bit challenging, especially in different subspecialties. Ideally, in the future we'll recruit from our own trainees.”
Nursing care
A recent Global Mental Health Care Access and Affordability Benchmark report assessed access to care in 15 nations, including the UAE.
The report compiled by Australian service provider TherapyNearMe.com assessed coverage, timeliness, availability, mental-health-specific unmet needs, provider fees and affordability.
Eleven countries had compatible observations for psychologists, psychiatrists and mental health nurses.
Five national mental health programmes were psychologist-led, five, including the UAE, were majority nurse-led, and one in Jordan was psychiatrist-led.
Dr Mistry said plans to train 2,000 Abu Dhabi family doctors in mental health were a positive move towards improving access to care.
“Official figures show around two thirds of the UAE's mental health workforce are nurses, which isn't quite the same as nurses leading care,” she said.
“Nurses are a real strength, and often the healthcare professional a patient sees most. The risk is that they carry complex cases without enough supervision or specialists to turn to when needed.”
Incentives to ask for help
Clear directives under the UAE’s Crimes and Penalties Law should help relieve some of the prejudice against people living with mental illness, professionals said.
In 2024, Dubai authorities dropped charges of attempted suicide against Irish citizen Tori Towey, an Emirates flight attendant.
Charges stemmed from a domestic incident involving Irish national Ms Towey, 30, and her South African husband.
The case attracted international media attention after being raised in the Irish Parliament, with an intervention by Taoiseach Simon Harris.
Any threats of prosecution for similar cases should disappear under recent amendments.
Marie Byrne, a therapist from Ireland who runs positive psychology sessions in Dubai for workplace wellness, said the legal amendments can help reduce the bias still associated with certain mental health conditions.
“Prior to the Iran conflict, workplace wellness was really on the agenda, the sense now is that productivity and achievement has taken over,” she said.
“With the amount of uncertainty for occupational security, there is a need for people to feel they have support.
“Anxiety is more prevalent with uncertainty for the future, and people are in a kind of loop; they get exhausted with worry, and they're not sleeping properly either.
“It's easy to see how someone could start to think, 'it's all getting on top of me'.”
Ms Byrne was one of a cohort of mental health professionals who volunteered their services for the Emirates Foundation during the pandemic.
They offered free support for those in crisis or living in isolation, anxiety and depression. It was a sign of changing attitudes towards mental health, she said.
“There are now similar, more permanent support structures in place with the health authorities,” said Ms Byrne.
“This legal amendment could be a real incentive for people to go for early intervention, before they get to where they're even thinking to end their own life.”
“I really do think this can help remove some of the stigma that is still associated with mental health.”
