I.

Introduction

You miss a hundred percent of the shots you don’t take, is what I would say if we were to
talk about your career and dreams. However in this case, we’d rather not take any shots at all.
Mental health is a very heavy issue faced by the community today. No family or community
should handle a loss of a family member taken by their own hands. According to a website
called statista, “In the Philippines, around 3.2 deaths relating to suicide were recorder per
100,000 inhabitants in 2016”(Kohl, A., et al., 2020). However, due to the global pandemic
amongst us now, causing quarantines, social distancing and lessening the interaction between
people, this could highly affect the mental health and stability of a person.

Social interaction is very healthy and helps us cope with whatever is stressing us, such
as schoolwork, family problems and our own personal problems (Diggory, 2018). We deeply
want to push through with this concept paper because we want to help lessen the cases of
suicide vicitms in the Philippines. With the lack of social interaction with one another we believe
that our concept paper may be of big help to those in need of ears and a helping hand. What we
are willing to propose will not only keep the participants’ identities anonymous, but also their
stories and experiences will be kept a secret too.

We understand that everyone is going through a rough time now and for all we know
their situation is only getting worse. One of our members knows multiple people who have
commit suicide or has attempted to, within the last two years alone. There are so many people
out there that are going through something and some even try to hide it, and we want to do
something about it. We know that the Ateneo Senior High School is very aware of this issue that
is why we have our school devote the month of September for Mental Health Awareness.
Aligned with this we think that our proposal will be quintessential for Ateneo to fund.

II. Rationale
COVID-19 virus has affected a lot of households from all over the world. It does not
select its prey whether you're poor,rich,young or old. Unfortunately this is not just the issue that
is seen today, issues about mental health is also a prevailing problem in every country.
According to statistics the suicide ratio of Philippines is 3.2 and it is rank 163 in the whole world.
The leading country is ASEAN that has a high suicide ratio is thailand which is rank 32 in the
whole world, it is believe that the causes of these suicides is economic downturn, depression,
conflict ridden relationship between family, friends or spouse.

Suicide is a taboo topic here in Philippines, but knowadays due to social media suicide
is becoming a norm. A lot of people tend to commit suicide to escape from their problems,
responsibilities and fear. Although we are living in this modern world preventions and awareness
for mental health issues are still hard to publicize or spread. The main goal of this concept paper
is to prevent suicide. This are the 3 concepts that would be carried out during the project,
creating a website where people can anonymously share their problems, advertising the
hopeline hotline, a suicide prevention and crisis intervention hotline here in the Philippines and
last a google meeting where a professional if possible a psychiatrist to enlighten people on the
said meeting.

Due to the shocking rate of suicide amidst the pandemic, The students were engaged to
take action. During their LDP session, one of their lesson talks about suicide, its causes and its
possible solution. During the meeting the learners learned about a hope hotline that helps the
caller through giving advice or just by listening, which most of the people haven’t heard before.
That's why the students think that by publicizing it, it can reach a lot of people especially those
in need. In addition the group wants to create a website where people can send their problems,
thoughts and etc anonymously, this information can only be opened by the creators, government
personnel and professionals (psychiatrists). The students believe that nowadays people don’t
have the courage to voice out their concerns. Lastly the gmeeting, this concept is inspired by
the bahaghari meeting held by ateneo de manila where the speakers inspire students to achieve
their goals. In this meeting a professional will enlighten the minds of the people present in the
meeting. The effectiveness of these projects is actually 50/50 because it doesn't just depend on
the effectiveness project, but also the person. This the best possible solution because it can be
done without interacting face to face specially now. Also because this project is not just about
giving awareness, but it calls for action this project has narrowly targeted its audience, created
compelling messages with clear calls to action, developed a theory of change and it uses the
right messenger.

III. Project Description

There is hope, when there is help. Our proposal wants to reach out to those who are
fighting their own demons. So the project is mainly around listening and helping those people in
need when they feel that no one is there to talk to. We also want to spread awareness to people
that everyone has a demon inside them and we can all help.

Goal: Our overall goal is to lessen and prevent suicide cases in Davao City
Objectives:

1. To spread awareness regarding suicide with the help of social media.

2. To encourage and give hope
3. To learn how to deal with people who are suicidal or in need.

Methodology

In order to achieve a more realistic goal, our project's first objective would be to spread
awareness about hope hotlines through different kinds of platforms such as facebook, twitter
and instagram. This hotline helps its caller by listening and giving advice. Hope hotline is the
national hotline for mental health assistance but still a lot of people are unaware of its existence.
Second, we have come up with a website that will help them connect and convey their concerns
to us. In order for us to achieve and implement this goal. We the researchers brainstormed and
planned on how to make a website which would not take much of the time. During our
independent learning time through the google meet we have come up with such an idea by
collaborating with the pre-science and pre computer studies department. We can ask our fellow
pre computer students to create a website where people can voice out what's on their mind and
then it would directly slide into an authorized person’s chatbox. And then we can ask students
from pre-science, ABM or HUMMS who are acquainted with a psychiatrist. And ask them for a
cheaper fee and if possible do it for a good cause. With the help of these psychiatrists we can
achieve a more in-depth consultation which is what we are aiming for in our meeting.
Additionally a final inspection will take place in order to make sure that the website is working
without any problem. In order to achieve this said objective we need a lot of resources, and in
order to attain this resources our group plans on giving solicitation. We would also ask for
additional help from our government(Davao City) and if possible a partnership with them. Finally
the implementation of the project.

Project Timeline

Implementation of proposal
Date
September 29,2020
Activity Description
Create social media account The social media account is for the daily
dose of messages and spread of
awareness for the public

September 30, 2020 Meeting with students from other strands We must have a meet with these
students to inform them what project
we’re trying to implement and what we
need from them

October 2, 2020 Design website The designing of website is crucial for us

to be able to effectively do our task and it
must be pleasing to the respondents
eyes and must not trigger any emotion

October 5, 2020 Creation of website This is where the work is put in to make
the website we need

October 8, 2020 Collaboration with government and other Here we reach out to those
organizations organizations that have the same fight
with us to help the people. We gather
volunteers and information we need to
make this project more effective

October 13, 2020 Launching of website We make the website public here. We
allow the people to know who we are.

Expected outcomes
 We anticipate that our website won’t be in full effect right away. We expect flaws,
mishaps and the like. However we are aware of this and we are ready to make quick
adjustments to whatever defect we encounter. We also don’t expect that there will be
participants right away, but this project is for the long run. We don’t want people coming in just
for the sake we want them to be there so we can help them. We wish for them to keep coming
back until we become their friend. We expect that overall this project will save the lives of many
and that in the future we will see more people wanting to be a part of this project.

IV. Budget (Optional)

Categories Cost Quantity Total

Honorarium to the ₱ 15,000 1

speaker

Internet ₱ 5,000 1

Subscription fee to 1
the software needed

Adobe Photoshop ₱ 6,000 1

Vegas Pro ₱ 15,000 1

Contingency funds ₱ 50,000 1 ₱ 91,000

References

Diggory, K. (2018, December). The Importance of Human Interaction and Relationships

Retrieved from

https://www.explore-life.com/en/articles/the-importance-of-human-interaction-and
-relationships#:~:text=Social%20contact%20helps%20us%20to,more%20positive
ly%20about%20our%20environment.

Khol, A., et al (2020, March). Crude Suicide Rate in the Philippines 2000-2016
Retrieved from

https://www.statista.com/statistics/702026/philippines-crude-suicide-rate/
Nortajuddin, A (2020, August 11). Suicide spiks amid
Pandemic?
Retrieved from

https://www.google.com.ph/amp/s/theaseanpost.com/article/suicide-spikes-amid-
pandemic%3famp