On 30 April 2019, Counselling Unit from Infrastructure University of Kuala Lumpur ( IUKL) organised "Invisible Illness: Gain Cognizance, Fight Ignorance". Mr Rakesh Kumar, the Founder & President of Malaysian Invisible Illnesses Association (MIIA) was invited as a guest speaker, together with Dr. Wan Marzuki Wan Jaafar from Department of Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM).
During this talk, Dr Wan Marzuki who was the first speaker shared a lot about mental health, including the relationship between Ego, Id and Superego, ways to take care of mental health, Rationale Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) and conducted group screening of depression for the participants.
Mr Rakesh Kumar talked about the difference between impairment and disability, models of disability and how the approach of each of the models of disability would differ in a same situation involving a person with disability. Besides that, he shared about invisible illnesses and disabilities, including the challenges that people with invisible disability face in daily life, and how other countries like United Kingdom helped people with invisible disability by extending accessible facilities like accessible toilets and accessible parking to both people with invisible and visible disabilities. Mr Rakesh Kumar then talked about ableism and how it still persists among Malaysians, be it at the cultural, individual or institutional level.
MIIA is very glad to be a part of IUKL' s initiative to spread awareness of invisible illnesses among the students and staff members. We hope that the awareness will be continued to spread among the society.
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