DAVAO CITY —To prevent the high probability of suicides with the surge of mental health problems caused by the pandemic, the Misamis Oriental Provincial Health Office (PHO) has organized focal persons to fight mental health illnesses among adolescents.
The PHO conducted recently a two-day capacity building course for the newly organized Peer Support Group Oversight Committee (PSGOC) for the entire province to implement its pilot project, the “mental health playbook,” among young people ages 15-24.
The provincial government intends to implement the project this year.
Since the onset of COVID 19, mental health patients has reportedly doubled, in some areas tripled, which created a vacuum with the extremely limited number of psychologists and psychiatrists in the country.
Psychiatrists are medical doctors who prescribe medication, diagnose and manage treatment for mental illnesses. Psychologists, meanwhile, are not medical doctors, cannot prescribe medication and focus on providing psychotherapy (or talk therapy) to help patients.
The Misamis Oriental PHO said that adolescents have the highest risk and are mostly affected by mental illness brought by the pandemic.
With the implementation of “mental health playbook,” focal persons will also promote programs from the Provincial Youth Development Office and the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office.
Focal persons will become peer facilitators, who will organize peer sessions with target adolescents.
Adolescent and Youth Health Development Coordinator Zyra Blanche T. Ebdalin praised the pilot program “mental health playbook,” saying, “we’re expecting that with this program we can help address mental health problems among the young that would likely lead to suicides.”
She added that peer session “is really important (because it is an avenue) for them to open up their feelings to their peers.”
Meanwhile, Rerea May Andea-Tok of PSWDO’s Persons with Disabilities Affairs Office (PDAO), said that “being one of the peer facilitators, no matter how difficult it is to communicate with persons with mental problems, we can determine whether that person has depression, which gives us the opportunity to prevent suicides.”
Health Department’s Mental Health Bureau Medical Health Officer, Doctor Miguel Mantaring, who was the facilitator of the training, said they will not stop helping local government units that intends to address mental health realities.
Governor Bambi Emano know the enormous responsibilities in fighting mental health illness, but the governor also believe that their pilot project will make a huge impact on their fight against COVID 19 and its effects.-Gualberto Laput
