THE National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) has expressed readiness to provide mental health training to interested individuals as it seeks to strengthen communities’ capacity to respond to mental health concerns.
In a television interview, NCMH Medical Center Chief Dr. Noel Reyes said the center is open to training individuals who want to become mental health service providers and advocates.
“We are open for training for anyone who wishes to become a mental health service provider. We are ready to help in terms of mental health awareness and advocacy,” Reyes said.
He added that the NCMH Crisis Hotline remains available 24 hours a day to provide assistance to people experiencing mental health crises.
“The NCMH is open 24/7. We must be ready to respond,” Reyes said.
Reyes said mental health concerns have become increasingly evident in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic, citing a significant increase in calls received by the NCMH Crisis Hotline.
“After the COVID pandemic, much has been written that mental health is the next pandemic. We're already seeing that,” he said.
According to Reyes, calls to the crisis hotline have quadrupled compared with pre-pandemic levels.
He said that before the pandemic, about 10 percent of calls were related to suicide. The proportion has since increased to 35 percent of callers reporting an intention to harm themselves.
Reyes also noted that callers have become younger, which he said reflects growing mental health concerns among children and adolescents.
“It is a reflection of what is happening in our child and adolescent communities. They are exposed to different pressures in life. Probably, their self-protecting mechanism is still insufficient,” he said.
The Department of Health-Metro Manila Center for Health Development (DOH-MMCHD) earlier reported that 10,699 individuals in the region had been diagnosed with various mental, neurological and substance-use conditions.
These included 2,573 individuals with substance use-related disorders, 2,404 with depression and 2,037 with psychosis.
The NCMH Crisis Hotline may be reached nationwide at 1553 or 1800-1888-1553; through Smart/TNT at 0919-057-1553; and through Globe/TM at 0917-899-8727 or 0966-351-4518. (Anton Banal/SunStar Philippines)