DAVAO CITY, Philippines – If before depression mostly affects senior citizens, now the Philippine Mental Health Associate (PMHA) said it has moved back dozens of steps starting as early as 9 years old.
Precious Manliguez, PMHA Davao Chapter Executive Manager said this trend of depression among the youth pushed PMHA to focus their community engagement to students of both public and private education institutions.
“PMHA is 90% engaged in information services wherein we give lectures and forums to students, and even the faculty in both private and public institutions,” Manliguez said in a press briefing.
Even with the strong information services of PMHA, Manliguez underscored that depression is still the biggest problem of PMHA.
“Depression is not like chicken pox that you can see. Depression is something you can hide and you can still be functional in the early stage,” she said.
Meanwhile, with the trend of depression among the youth, Job Eloja of Mango Radio, a national radio station committed to enriching the youth on their advocacies, believes that social media is a key contributor to the trend.
“The more we are exposed to social media, the more we compare ourselves to other people whom we think are more successful or better in life than us,”
To increase mental health awareness among the youth, Job Eloja will handle the “Mango-lenial” segment. This segment is part of “Mango Life with Vice Mayor Bernie Al-ag,” now focused on mental health advocacies as of Monday.
The focus on mental health advocacies was an outcome of the Memorandum of Agreement among PMHA, Mango Radio, and Office of the Vice-Mayor Al-ag, which was signed on Monday at SM City Annex. (Danielle B. Fanlo/davaotoday.com)
