Lawmakers on Monday warned the government and their colleagues in Congress against an increase in mental problems among Filipinos due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This as Reps. Alfred Delos Santos of Probinsyano party-list group, Fidel Nograles of Rizal and Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro filed separate measures that will help the public cope with mental health issues.
In House Bill 7210, De los Santos seeks to create a national call center for mental health issues as well as deploy mental health workers in every barangay in order to make the services more accessible in the grassroots level across the country.
Delos Santos, a deputy majority leader, cited the importance of a nationwide government-run mental health emergency hotline is aimed at providing telephone and mobile numbers which are accessible to the public for immediate assistance and medical intervention.
“The proposed measure seeks to further strengthen the Mental Health Act of 2018 and the constitutional provision on the State’s responsibility to ‘protect and promote the right to health of the people’,” said Delos Santos. “It is in furtherance of these policies and commitments that this bill is proposed,” Delos Santos explained.
The proposed Accessible Mental Health Services Act, Delos Santos said that a devoted hotline manned by mental health workers should be made available to the public 24/7 nationwide for consultation and emergency psychological response.
The National Center for Mental Health reported last month that its crisis hotline received about 30 to 35 calls a day when the quarantine restrictions were imposed as a response to stop the spread of COVID-19 virus, from an average of 13 to 15 calls per day prior to the lockdown. And as of end-May, the monthly average of suicide-related calls the center received reached 45.
Nograles, for his part, backed the initiative by the Department of Education to hold mental sessions for its leaders. “Clear heads are needed in facing the challenges the education sector faces due to the pandemic—our leaders need to have unclouded minds as they plan how our schools will cope with the changes forced upon us by COVID-19,” Nograles said.
He added, however, that the DepEd should likewise create such programs for teachers and other education personnel on the ground. “Our teachers also deal with various anxieties over the very uncertain circumstances that we are living under. Hindi lang mental health, kundi overall health ang dapat na siguruhin natin para sa ating mga guro at iba pang education frontliners,” he added.
Meanwhile, Rodriguez’s House Bill 2732 is uring the the government to hire more guidance counsellors, psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health personnel to help people cope with mental issues.
He said the national government and local government units should prepare facilities for counseling and treating people with psychological problems.
He said the fear alone of getting infected by the new coronavirus “is driving many Filipinos nuts.” “This prolonged pandemic is adversing affecting the mental health of tens of thousands if not millions among us. Worries of being sick with covid, no work, no food or less food to eat, being unable to go outdoors, pressure to earn for the family, sickness in the family, depressing news of friends infected with and dying of covid, unable to continue school, inability to get physical comfort from friends and relatives – all these result in deteriorating mental health of our people,” he said.
Added to these “is the uncertainty of when this infectious virus wreaking havoc on our lives will go away,” added Rodriguez, chairman of the House committee on constitutional amendments.