Mental Illness Awareness & Support Association (MIASA)

Mental Illness Awareness & Support Association (Malaysia)', or Persatuan Kesedaran dan Sokongan Penyakit Mental (Malaysia) (MIASA Malaysia) – is a Mental Health Advocacy and Peer Support NGO based in Selangor. It was founded by Puan Anita Abu Bakar, a person with lived experience of mental health challenges back in September 2017 and has now become one of the leading mental health NGOs in Malaysia.

MIASA Malaysia strives to continuously develop, expand, and strengthen community-based support services for peers and caregivers, and advocate for their rights and dignity. MIASA Malaysia supports and empowers peers in their recovery journey by providing liberty, autonomy, and supported decision-making, to ensure peers can live a life that is meaningful and purposeful, according to their wants and needs. Other than that, we also strive to ensure that peers are included and can participate equally and meaningfully in the community, and it is hoped that no one is left behind or falls through the gaps of the system. Ultimately MIASA Malaysia's goal is to reduce stigma, end discrimination, injustices, and human rights abuses, and other violations.

To date, MIASA Malaysia has 132 Crisis team members, trained more than 200, has over 2000 volunteers and 900 members across the nation, and has helped more than 500,000 people from August 2020 who have reached out via the various platforms of MIASA Malaysia. Since its inception, MIASA Malaysia has conducted 1,396 programs as of November 2024 with an Impact Reach of more than 21.57 million people across all its platforms and initiatives carried out.

Mental health is a seminal aspect of human cognitive, behavioral, and emotional well-being, which directly affects how we think, feel, and behave. As you will surely know, there have been far too many individuals who have been deeply affected by a wide range of mental health conditions, the effects of which become further exacerbated when individuals are stigmatized, discriminated against, and isolated, thus hindering their recovery journey. Hence, a collective effort with various sectors and stakeholders involved in the journey must be held towards improving the mental health space.

We continue to place mental health advancements high on the national agenda. And we hope that by organizing events such as the one proposed herewith, we will be able to encourage difficult but essential conversations that increase help-seeking behaviour while empowering the community for transformation and full inclusion where every person is helped, heard and no one is left behind during these difficult times. We must improve our collective ability to respond so that everyone is provided the intervention, help, and support as needed, safely and effectively.

MIASA-YSD 24/7 Crisis Helpline: 1800180066

MIASA-YSD 24/7 Crisis Whatsapp: 0397656088