Hello and welcome to Business Daily with me M Hashmi.

Today we're talking about mental health.

The World Health Organization held its annual Mental Health Day earlier this week.

The event is about raising awareness of mental health issues and mobilizing support efforts around the world.

In this episode, I'll be exploring mental health provisions in Pakistan. A couple of years ago,

Mental Health Publication, The Lancet, found that despite its enormous population of more than 200 million people,

Pakistan has only 500 working psychiatrists.

This means around 90% of those with common mental health issues in Pakistan go untreated.

So if I talk about numbers, normally a regular mental health health consultation costs somewhere between $3,000 to $5,000.

So that's going to be around $15.

I've been speaking to the charities and doctors who are working towards closing this treatment gap.

Even if people have mental health ailment, they're unable to really recognize,

accepted, or even have the courage to be able to go to a mental health expert. In Pakistan,

as in many other countries, there is also a stigma associated with mental health conditions.

Another obstacle in securing funding and getting people the help

they need. Even now, they do not recognize mental illness as an illness, you know?

That's Myra Khan, a multi-award-winning Pakistani actress.

In April this year, Myra was appointed as an ambassador for the British Asian Trust to support its current peace and mind campaign,

which aims to raise awareness of mental health issues and needs in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

When I met Myra, I started by asking her how her job affects her personal peace.

Many, many times, I've gotten my characters, worries, pain, trauma back home with me.

The minute I start going into the character and I start living her, I bring some of her back

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