Mindanaotoday.com | Mental health draws more support in Oro
By: URIEL QUILINGUING
Enhanced mental health package, timely medical care and treatment, improved city government response, and sustained psychosocial education campaign and interventions across sectors are now in the offing in Cagayan de Oro.
Most of these surfaced in recent weeks, following attempts of teenage residents to end their lives by jumping off a bridge across Cagayan de Oro River; three of them succeeded.
And, far from nosy reporters, were three youngsters who were brought to the city’s Northern Mindanao Medical Center late last week for urgent medical attention due to idrug overdose and ingestion of toxic or poisonous substances.
Last Saturday, June 3, the spokesperson of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation in Region 10 reiterated an earlier report that a new mental health benefit package would be rolled out any time this year.
“We are just waiting for the guidelines from our Central Office,” PhilHealth-10 Public Affairs Unit Head Merlyn H. Ybañez said during a PhilHealth Summit at Limketkai Center’s Event Center with some 150 participants from 98 private firms.
Ybañez said one will likely benefit more than P7,800 current case rate for admitted patients of anxiety disorders, bipolar, dementia, and schizophrenia, and other mental health conditions, but she urged all to register in PhilHealth’s Konsultasyong Sulit at Tama (Konsulta).
Funding for this and other new PhilHealth benefit packages that would be introduced this year will come from the P21,170 billion which the Department of Budget and Management appropriated in December 2022, labelled as PhilHealth’s Benefit Package Improvement for 2023 under the Universal Health Care Law (Republic Act No. 11223).
MULTI-FACTORIAL
On Friday, June 2, during a Philippine Information Agency-10 forum, Dr. Rutchell A. Simene, a toxicologiost ar NMMC, who disclosed the recent admissions of three teeners, said attempts to commit suicide, based on hospital records, are seasonal.
“More cases within graduation period, in the months of February, and in December,” said Simene, admitting though not all of these would reach the NMMC, particularly the Toxicology Management and Control Unit which he heads.
Those who jump from buildings and bridges, as well as those who hang themselves are not being referred to the NMMC-TMCU.
Suicide cases, he said, are multi-factorial, but for school-age children the most common causes are academics (high expectations and failing marks), financial, and family problems (broken families).
Three weeks ago, City Mayor Rolando A. Uy created a Task Force on Mental Health in response to the increasing number of youngsters suffering from depression, even as he appealed
to parents to provide proper health care and basic needs to their children.
Chaired by lawyer Hilario Roy Raagas, the City Administrator, and co-chaired by Gender and Development Focal Person Sheila Lumbatan, the TFMH is currently crafting measures that would improve the city government’s capability in handling mental health issues.
The task force is also tasked to develop programs on suicide prevention, including its treatment and response mechanisms, most of these vital functions have long been with the City Social Welfare Department’s Psycho-Social Services Unit.
CAN’T DO THIS ALONE
Dr. Jaymee Q. Leonen-Pagaspas, who heads the CSWD-PSSU, said during a Meet-the-Press forum at the Cagayan de Oro Press Club, the creation of her office was the first-ever among cities nationwide and that they have been conducting trainings on psychological first aid and other psychosocial interventions since 2018.
“We cannot do this alone. We do not have enough manpower to address the mental health needs of more than 700,000 population,” Leonen-Pagaspas told the forum attendees, most of them had reported the jumping-off-the-bridge incidents.
She reminded them to be responsible, by not reporting too much details and refraining from commenting on why the incident happened, as well as from interviewing family members and classmates.
These, she said, will not help solve mental heath problems.
Meantime, a psychosocial team from CSWD conducted a Seminar on Psychological First Aid on Friday, June 2, that was participated in by City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Department personnel, the first-responders in natural and man-made calamities, who also need PFA.
One of the psychosocial personnel also conducted two sessions on mental health awareness to more than 400 workers, including 20 engineers and architects, upon the request of Makati Development Corporation-Cagayan de Oro, a private construction company.
CSWD-PSSU also collaborated with the Sangguniang Kabataan of Barangay Carmen and conducted orientations on the Principles in Understanding Mental Health, aside from lectures at the West City Central School – one of the biggest schools in the city – and in elementary schools of Upper Carmen, Sacred Heart Village, and Macanhan.
Lectures on mental health at Indahag National High School with more than 400 Grade 7 and 8 students, at Iba Integrated School in Dansolihon, and at Man-ai Elementary School in Tignapoloan — two of the city’s remotest schools.
During congressional hearings, the Department of Education reported there were 2,147 students who tried to commit suicide, aside from 404 who succeeded in ending their lives, in the last two school years – at the height of coronavirus pandemic.
For a time, the CSWD PSSU only hotline number has been 0970 039 2709.
Lately, it revived its linkage with 911 and tied-up the CSWD Oro Response and Processing Section (ORPS) which is opened round-the-clock, 24/7.
Since then, seven (7) more contact numbers (hotlines) have been made available: (Daytime) 0955-115-6600 / 0975-044-6176 and (Night time) 0910-750-4957 / 0995-004-9618 / 0970-920-5882 / 0946-368-6648. There is also a back-up number from the ORPS administrator 0956-637-8550. (30)
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