Ganjar Encourages Advocacy And Assistance For Young People To Experience Mental Health To Prevent Bad Stigma

Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo while attending the 'Governor Teaching' event at SMKN 1 Bawang, Banjarnegara, Monday, July 25, 2022. (doc. Central Java Provincial Government)

JATENG - The PDI-P (PDIP) presidential candidate Ganjar Pranowo assesses that mental health problems experienced by the younger generation in Indonesia need to be a national priority.

According to him, these efforts can make young people who experience mental health problems have access to therapy and counseling.

"Together we need to build awareness about mental health, more platforms like Being Human, more mental health experts who talk to the public about the importance of this problem, expand access to mental health counseling at the Puskesmas and hopefully there will also be more friends taking care of each other's friends. Well, my message to all of my friends here is let's take care of the conco-conco, take care of our friends. Grow a sense of solidarity to become a human and a happy generation. Let's encourage this problem to become one of the national priorities," said Ganjar in a talk show on Sunday, July 30, quoted from Antara.

On the same occasion, he explained that advocacy on mental health issues needs to continue because many parties are still reluctant to discuss the issue.

"Advocacy for greater support, greater awareness, greater understanding (needs to be aimed at mental health problems, ed.). Until recently, talking about mental health issues is still a taboo matter," he said.

Therefore, he invites collaboration from various groups of people and the government to deal with mental health problems, whose prevalence according to a number of studies is quite high experienced by the younger generation.

"Why is this important? Because, the future of the Indonesian nation is in the hands of the younger generation. Why is this important? Because, we are experiencing a demographic bonus whose key is to be in the younger generation and not necessarily repeated," said Ganjar Pranowo.

On the same occasion, Ganjar shared his experience dealing with mental health problems. He admitted that he was grateful to have the people around him who supported him and were open to the problem.

"I feel lucky to be blessed with a strong support network and a great family, and true friends. However, not everyone has that," he said.

Since being officially promoted by PDIP, PPP and several other parties as candidates for the Presidential Election (Pilpres) 2024, Ganjar, who is currently still active as Governor of Central Java, often takes advantage of his holidays to meet with various groups of people, including young people.

Registration for presidential and vice presidential candidates is scheduled to take place from 19 October 2023 to 25 November 2023.

Law Number 7 of 2017 concerning Elections (UU Pemilu) regulates that pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates are proposed by political parties or coalitions of political parties participating in elections that meet the requirements for obtaining seats of at least 20 percent of the total seats in the DPR or obtaining 25 percent of valid votes nationally in the previous election for members of the DPR.

Currently, there are 575 seats in parliament so that pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates in the 2024 presidential election must have at least 115 seats in support from the Indonesian House of Representatives. Candidate pairs can also be promoted by political parties or a combination of political parties participating in the 2019 Election, with a total valid vote acquisition of at least 34,992,703 votes.