Growing up, I slowly started to realize how inefficient mental health services in the Philippines were. It started when my younger brother, Renzo, was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder 14 years ago. During the early years of his diagnosis, my parents and I gave him the support and treatment he needed in order for him to keep up with his fellow classmates. However, as the eldest in the family, I felt helpless and devastated each time he’d always fall short in school and would always have to go through remedial class every summer. Furthermore, I could only imagine how frustrated he must’ve felt during the years as he’d be judged by his peers as “not smart enough”. I had to watch him struggle throughout grade school even though our family did everything they could in order for him to get promoted to the next grade. A few years later, we decided to pull him out of Ateneo and enroll him in Multiple Intelligence, a progressive school not far away from Ateneo. Thinking that this would be the best decision, we realized later that no visible change was seen in Renzo’s progress with regard to his ADD. While knowing fully that he does his best in everything that he does, it still saddens me up to this day to see my brother struggle with his online classes just because of his recurring ADD.
Integrating what I have learned in my DEV 189.83i class which talks about public health interventions, only 5% of our country’s health expenditures is spent on mental health services (WHO, 2020).This shouldn’t be the case as poor mental health is also a risk factor for chronic physical conditions. The government should be able to realize that mental health is as important. In addition to this, it frightens me how individuals with mental health disorders pay mostly or entirely out-of-pocket for services and medicines. In addition it has come to my attention how Philhealth insurance does not cover children’s mental health and how access to children’s mental health facilities is uneven across the country, favoring those living near the main cities. (Estrada et al. 2020) Given today’s context, it is vital to understand that these children are in need of guidance and support by the elderly especially when tackling their own problems in their online schooling.
I truly resonate with Youth for Mental Health Coalition’s advocacy with regard to working to elevate the Filipino youth’s consciousness on mental health and end the stigma on mental illness since this problem has been recurring in the Philippines for a long time and should be brought to attention. Although this is a problem that also affects children, I believe that we too have to be responsible for their own mental health since we serve as outlets for them to talk about their feelings towards several issues.
References:
1. Estrada, C., Usami, M., Satake, N., Gregorio, E., Leynes, C., Balderrama, N., Fernandez de Leon, J., Concepcion, R., Tuazon Timbalopez, C., Tsujii, N., Harada, I., Masuya, J., Kihara, H., Kawahara, K., Yoshimura, Y., Hakoshima, Y. and Kobayashi, J., 2020. Current Situation And Challenges For Mental Health Focused On Treatment And Care In Japan And The Philippines - Highlights Of The Training Program By The National Center For Global Health And Medicine.
2. Who.int. 2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/philippines_who_aims_report.pdf> [Accessed 6 October 2020].
