K-12 students to get emotional wellness education

Students in select schools in Mimaropa region will receive education in emotional wellness beginning January 2017 through a new program by the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Education (DepEd).

The Wellness Resilience for Filipino Youth will run in Grades 4 to 12 classrooms for children ages 9 to 18, to build their psychological resilience as part of the government's suicide prevention and mental health programs.

"[We've] translated the modules into Filipino. We'll be in the process of teaching or training the teachers," Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Rosell-Ubial explained at the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) on Friday.

Ubial said Region IV-B (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) was chosen as a pilot region for the program because of its proximity to Metro Manila and the willingness of its local authorities to test the module.

Dr. Lucila Bance, director of the UST Counseling and Career Center, said there will be pre- and post-tests of students to gauge the efficacy of the module and to correctly adjust it to suit the needs of students.

Bance added that though the module is experimental, students will benefit from the program as they will be taught important life skills that no other subject can provide.

"They are taught different life skills. Kasama ang self-awareness, kasama ang communication skills, interpersonal relations, how to relate to others, family-building, establishing self-esteem," she said.

"We also have sexuality, how to [note] themselves about their sexuality, how to deal with sexual harassment, how to deal with bullying, how to deal with not only physical bullying but also cyberbullying," Bance continued.

Underreported suicides

The program aims to help students cope with anxiety, stress, and depression to lower suicide rates, which, as NCMH Medical Center Chief Bernardino Vicente noted, remains underreported due to stigma.

"With regards to how many [people] commit suicide, we don't really know kasi when you commit suicide and you die, it's difficult to do a psychological autopsy and sometimes the relatives- suicide is something not spoken about in the Philippines," Vicente said.

"That's why we have a very, very low reported rate of suicide. It's only 2.9 per 100,000. It is really very low, and I'm not surprised because there is stigma, something socially-related, hindi pinag-uusapan," he added.

Nationwide mental health programs

Along with the 24/7 suicide prevention hotline being maintained by the Natasha Goulbourn Foundation, the DOH plans to open a wellness center at the NCMH, along with health centers in other regions.

The wellness center at the NCMH will serve as a training center for health workers who need new ways of helping their patients or to relieve stress to effectively carry out their duties.

The DOH also vowed to continue the Medicines Access Program, approved two years ago, which gives indigent patients with depression access to medication from health centers and psychiatric units of government hospitals.

"We advise the poor, particularly those with PhilHealth sponsored cards to go to government facilities because we can assure that if you go to government facilities, we have a program of no balance billing. They will be taken cared of and PhilHealth will pay the government hospitals," Ubial said.

An animated shortfilm by 21-year-old Vince Serrano called Companion, the winner of Hope in 40 Seconds, will also be shown in theaters and TV channels to promote the suicide hotline.

The ultimate goal of the programs is to create a safer environment for individuals with mental health problems and to remove the stigma of discussing these health issues openly.

""Baliw" is a stigma that people label other people. But a diagnosis of mental illness is made by psychiatrists and our doctors working in mental institutions. Nobody can label somebody else as having mental illness if they are not trained to do so," Ubial said. —ALG, GMA News