Responses related to mental health

The recent suicide of certain celebrities has brought to public attention the need to understand more about mental health. Many who suffer from mental health often keep the matter to themselves and do not reach out for help.

Here in the Philippines, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that in 2012, there about 2,559 cases of suicide. The signing of the Mental Health Act this week is, therefore, very timely.

According to Senator Hontiveros, the main proponent of Republic Act No. 11036 or the Philippine Mental Health Law and former chairwoman of the Senate Health Committee, “no longer shall Filipinos suffer silently in the dark. Mental health issues will now cease to be seen as an invisible sickness spoken only in whispers.”

Filipinos can now expect to be provided “mental health services down to the barangay level, with mental health programs integrated in hospitals.” The law also intends to improve mental health facilities and to promote mental health education in schools and workplaces. Furthermore, the bill calls on the government health insurance provider PhilHealth to cover psychiatric consultations and medicines, and not just hospitalization.

All of us need to know more about mental health. Hopefully, mental health education will be integrated sooner in our schools and workplaces.

As introduction, “mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.”

Mental health problems affect one’s thinking, mood, and behavior. Biological factors, such as genes or brain chemistry, life experiences such as trauma or abuse, and family history of mental health problems are some of the factors affecting mental health.

Early detection and learning how to cope with mental health cases will be very helpful and can also avert suicides.

Some early warning signs of mental health problems are “eating or sleeping too much or too little, pulling away from people and usual activities, having low or no energy, feeling numb or like nothing matters, having unexplained aches and pains, feeling helpless or hopeless, experiencing severe mood swings that cause problems in relationships,” among others.

Recognizing that mental health problems are affecting many of our seafarers and their families, the Apostleship of the Sea-Cebu, ISWAN-Philippines and the UST-GS Psychotrauma Clinic conducted a two-day training on Psychological First Aid Training that started yesterday June 22 and will end today June 23, at the Stella Maris Seafarers’ Center.

The participants were aptly reminded that the training would provide psychological first aid tips to respond to trauma and stress. Starting from lectures about what trauma is to what the different types of and responses to trauma are, the participants hope that they will learn tips about how to cope when trauma affects themselves personally, or their family members, or others. Like band aid, the psychological tips they expect to learn may be palliative and temporary but may still be helpful.

Knowing the why will make the how easier, the participants were told. Why is one experiencing what type of trauma, what assistance is appropriate, who can respond and when, are among the items that were shared during the first day of the training.

The training is definitely one that the seafarers and their families need to cope with their various stresses and trauma throughout their lives. May more trainings related to mental health be offered to more, the young, the poor, the women, the vulnerable, and other needy soon.