#MentalHealthPH
By Roy Dahildahil
The Founder
I’m Roy Dahildahil, a public health and health informatics graduate, and I’m very passionate about mental health. In the Philippines, young people, and Filipinos in general, are having difficulty seeking help and communicating their feelings or what’s bothering them, making it common to have a “I will not tell you about my problem” mindset. Young people often opt to bottle up their emotions and/or engage in harmful activities to cope. This problem having so many layers, from access to services, policies, education, culture, has to be addressed. These layers we call self, society, and systems.
As a public health, and person experiencing this difficulty myself, I am bothered about this issue and have been wanting to do something to help. It saddens me knowing people living with mental health conditions, like our co-founder Lawrence, are challenged in accessing health care service. It saddens me knowing people from the LGBTQI+ communities experiencing violence and discrimination. It saddens me every time there are news of young people taking their own lives, a scenario that could have always been prevented. A life lost to suicide is a life too many. A problem that is not unique to our country but is happening globally. This has to change.
What is your change story?
#MentalHealthPH leverages social media and digital technology to promote and protect mental health. Digital technology penetration in the Philippines is as high as 70% according to Hootsuite data in 2020. Moreover, data shows that majority of the users are the young people, which were also at high risk of mental illness and suicide.
Driven by data and meeting people where most of them are, we used social media to raise awareness and normalize conversations about mental health. In 2016, we also used the platform to join the call for passage of the mental health law which was eventually passed in 2018. We’ve also used digital technology to improve access to information especially on how and where to seek help for mental health concerns.
Beyond medical science, we focused on showcasing stories of people with mental health conditions sending strong messages that mental illnesses are real, the challenges of people living with mental health conditions are real, and that there is hope. Amid the stigma associated with mental illness, having a mental health condition is not a death sentence, there is help, there is hope.
Beyond technology, we expanded our campaign to not only working online but also on-ground. We’ve established chapters in two big cities in the Philippines sharing our learning and experience with them as they create their own campaigns tailored-fit to their problem.
Beyond Philippines, recently we have partnered with United Global Mental Health sharing our experiences and also learning from them on how to further promote and protect mental health, not only in the Philippines but globally.
What is systems change?
We believe that systems change approach should be used to address the gap in mental health in the Philippines.
Systems change for me is recognizing that mental health is not just a public health problem. Mental health problems also affect the economy, governance, and the environment. And individual’s mental health is also affected by the social, economic, political, and environmental factors. #MentalHealthPH operates using the 3S (Self, Society, System) Framework where we recognize that achieving a mentally healthy community, we need to not only educate the individual and the society, but also create a system where one can gain ownership of their mental health.
What is your systems action plan?
We are guided by our 3Os (online, on-ground, onward) approach in promoting and protecting mental health in our community. We leverage social media and digital technology to normalize conversations about mental health and improve the access to mental health information. We complement our online initiatives with on-ground activities by conducting lectures and workshops in schools, workspaces, and less intimidating places such as the coffee shops. Finally, solidifying our efforts and making sure the advocacy can be continued onward through partnerships, collaborations, and representation in the government.
What is your greatest takeaway from HiFi Future Shapers Program?
Social transformation is not a competition, it’s a collaboration.
— Abi Mapua
One of my major takeaways from the HiFi Future Shapers program is the importance of looking in and going beyond.
To be effective in transforming the world, your intentions should be aligned with your values. You need to know and be grounded with your values as it guides and reflects how you think, work, react, respond, and make hard decisions.
I also valued the importance of going beyond. None of the social issues we are trying to address exists in a silo. Everything is interconnected. They affect directly and indirectly to what we are fighting for. We need to be mindful of the bigger picture and how each system affects our systems.
How might we support the organization?
This 2021, we endeavor in institutionalizing our frameworks and learning modules and offering it to a wider public. We are focusing on creating and designing inclusive mental health modules that can be offered to schools, workplaces, and even online such as in massive open online course platforms. Picking up from the free modules we’ve been offering last year (i.e. suicide reporting in media, psychological first aid, mental health 101), we will develop a plug and play modules that could be adapted and tailored fit to the institutions that would be needing psychoeducation.
To do this, we would be needing support from academe, professional organizations, and funders to design, develop, and test this modules and measure the impact and effectiveness of our modules. Support can be in a form of monetary, infrastructure (online platform, co-working spaces), technical and subject matter expertise, and/or human resource. We can be reached through our email hello@mentalhealthph.org or through our website mentalhealthph.org.
