MPR Leadership: Addressing Children's Mental Health Requires a Strong Commitment

Jakarta – Deputy Speaker of the People’s Representative Council (MPR RI) Lestari Moerdijat emphasised the importance of commitment and real action by all parties to achieve better prevention and handling of mental health issues among children and adolescents. ‘Substantial steps are needed that are born from a strong shared commitment to build a mechanism for prevention and handling mental health for the nation’s next generation,’ Lestari said in a statement in Jakarta on Friday. Lestari, known as Rerie, argued that the effectiveness of cooperation among parties to build better mental health for the next generation must be realised soon, given the rising trend in adolescent suicide cases. Police data from the Indonesian National Police show suicide cases in the child age group (0-15) rising more than twofold in two years, from 604 cases in 2022 to 1,498 in 2024. Additionally, the 2024 National Survey on the Life Experiences of Children and Adolescents (SNPHAR) recorded that 62.19 percent of children with mental health problems had also experienced violence in the previous 12 months. A member of Commission X of the DPR RI said strengthening family-based functions and positive parenting in society is one of the aims of the Joint Decree on Child Mental Health, not an easy task. She expressed hope that the ministers’ efforts will not stop at signing the SKB, but that the many decisions already taken must be realised with concrete steps. In this way, the cascade of violence and child suicide cases can be curbed and addressed as part of efforts to birth a capable and competitive next generation. Previously, the Joint Decree on Child Mental Health had been signed by nine ministers at the Office of the Coordinating Ministry for Human Development and Culture (Kemenko PMK) on Thursday (5/3). Attending were the Ministers of Home Affairs, Religion, Basic and Secondary Education, Health, Social Affairs, Communications and Digital, Population and Family Development, and Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection.