Mapping of Mental Health and

Psychosocial Support Services

in the Philippines in the time
of COVID-19 Pandemic

Elizabeth P. De Castro, Ph.D. Professor (Retired) Department

of Psychology, CSSP University of the Philippines, Diliman,
Quezon City

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF THE PHILIPPINES 13

OCTOBER 2020
Background

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected entire

sectors, leaving lasting repercussions in a
short span of time: among these are
financial losses, resource shortages, and
constraining public health measures.
Worldwide
• 33,842,281 confirmed cases
• 1,010,634 deaths

Highest cases
• The Americas – 16,624,745
• Southeast Asia – 7,071,811
• Europe – 5,937,969 cases
• Philippines is the top in SEA
National
●314,079 total cases
● 54,294 active cases
● 254,223 recovered
● 5,562 deaths

Highest cases
● NCR – 164,711 cases
● Region 4A: CALABARZON – 54,642
● Region 7: Central Visayas – 22,168
● Mental health is one of the most neglected areas in public health
● Close to 1 billion people are living with a mental disorder
(depression and anxiety disorders)
● 800,000/year deaths from suicide which is the leading cause of
death among young people
● Relatively few people in low and middle income countries have
access to quality mental health services
• A mobile phone survey by the Social Weather Stations (2020) found
that among working-age Filipinos: ○ 55% experienced great stress
and 34% experienced much stress amid the pandemic. ○ Stress was
higher among those who experienced involuntary hunger (68%),
financial or occupational difficulties (58%), and less education
(59%).
• ● The National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) reported a spike
in the number of Filipinos facing mental health issues due to the
pandemic, with calls flooding the center's crisis hotline during the
Philippines' months-long lockdown
The COVID 19 pandemic has been shown to have a serious impact on
mental health and has unleashed a host of psychosocial implications,
new set of stressors (e.g. isolation, social restrictions, loss, separation,
stigmatization) and long-lasting health problems, cross-cutting mental
health implications, with all sectors affected, albeit leaving some more
vulnerable than others

○ Front liners (healthcare and non-healthcare essential workers)

○ Persons with preexisting conditions ○ Pregnant women
○ The youth
○ The elderly
○ Individuals living in poverty
○ Locally stranded individuals (LSIs)
○ International Migrant Workers
Background
Interagency Standing Committee (IASC) on MHPSS: established by
the UN-General assembly as an inter-agency forum for coordination,
policy development and decisionmaking by the executive heads of
key humanitarian agencies and humanitarian NGOs

○ IASC Guidelines: To enable humanitarian actors and communities

to plan, establish and coordinate a set of minimum multi-sectoral
responses to protect and improve people’s mental health and
psychosocial well being in the midst of the pandemic
○ The focus of the guidelines is on implementing minimum
responses, which are essential, high-priority responses that should
be implemented as soon as possible in an emergency/disaster
○ Aid in policy formulation, development of institutional framework,
programs, strategies and response systems for managing MHPSS
Objectives
• To review related literature on MHPSS in
emergencies and disaster situations
• To describe the MHPSS services in response to
the COVID-19 pandemic (Who is Where, When,
doing What in Mental Health and Psychosocial
Support, 2012)
• To analyze the service gaps according to the IASC
MHPSS Intervention Pyramid
• To provide MHPSS related policy
recommendations that will impact on the
community at large
Definition of Terms
Health is the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, not merely
the absence of disease and infirmity.

Mental Health is a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her
own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively
and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community.

Psychosocial pertains to the inter-connection between psychological and social

processes and the fact that each continually interacts with and influences the
other

Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) is any type of local or outside
support that aims to protect or promote psychosocial well-being and/or prevent
or treat mental disorders
Methodology
• Purposive sampling of service providers (individuals and
organizations) was used to select respondents from among
those who publicly advertised their MHPSS services on
different social media platforms and among colleagues a.d
friends

• Questions were designed based on the IASC Reference Group

on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Emergency
Settings’ “Who is Where, When, doing What (4Ws) in Mental
Health and Psychosocial Support” (2012).
QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN
Categories of the MHPSS activities/services that service providers were asked
to classify are the following:

1. Information dissemination to the community at large;

2. Strengthening of community and family support;
3. Psychosocial support in education;
4. Psychosocial intervention;
5. Psychological intervention;
6. Clinical management of mental disorders by non-specialized health care
providers (e.g. workers or staff);
7. Clinical management of mental disorders by specialized mental health
care providers (e.g. psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses and psychologists
working at general health facilities/mental health facilities)
8. 8. General activities to support MHPSS; and
9. Other/Miscellaneous MHPSS-related activities
PART II: DOH Consolidated
Cluster Report
Main Observations
● Government organizations & other related agencies reported a
wider reach across 15 regions in the country and nationwide.
● Non-government organizations and individual practitioners
reported a more limited reach with 13 regions in the country (no
reports from Region 4-B, Region 5, Region 12 and Region 13)
● Both government organizations and non-government
organizations & individual practitioners, the common target
beneficiaries were:
■ the general public
■ (medical/health) frontline responders
■ individuals directly affected by COVID-19
● Both government organizations, and non-government organizations
& individuals practitioners, the two top ranked services/activities:
■ information dissemination to the community at large
■ psychosocial support for staff/volunteers/frontliners

● Both government organizations & non-government organizations &

individual practitioners, the following services/activities were
minimally provided:
■ facilitation of conditions for indigenous traditional, spiritual or
religious supports
■ structured social activities
■ unstructured social activities
■ recreational activities
■ early childhood development activities
Gaps & Recommendations
Target Beneficiaries
● Non-medical/Non-health front liners are the least specifically
targeted beneficiaries; in contrast, medical/health front liners are
most frequently targeted
○ Non-medical/Non-health front liners include public safety
personnel, grocery store personnel, supply chain personnel,
logistics and delivery, garbage disposal, critical manufacturing etc.
○ These represent workers that take on roles which if interrupted,
would pose a danger to the health and safety of those in the
population or otherwise disrupt the COVID-19 response measures.

● Given the essential nature of their roles during the pandemic

response, there may be a need to more deliberately provide mental
health and psychosocial support to this target population.
Gaps & Recommendations
Service-Target Beneficiary Links
Do target beneficiaries, especially those affected by COVID-19
know which services are available to them and if they do, do they
actually avail of these services?

● Need to increase awareness, and provide better connection

with the service providers (and the services) to the target
populations
● Online information dissemination has been widely reported (social
media, webinars etc.), but offline information dissemination needs a
greater thrust because there is still a large portion of the population
that do not find online resources easily accessible. Thus the need for:
■ dissemination of MHPSS services as part of LGU’s various activities ○
i.e social amelioration, relief operations, food distribution, COVID
testing etc.
■ dissemination of MHPSS services/activities to the general public
(posters, ads and billboards etc.)
■ dissemination through mass media (TV, radio, newspapers and
magazines etc.)
■ standard orientation of patients in quarantine hospitals and other
related facilities.
 Gaps & Recommendations
Coordination, MHPSS Guidelines & National
Baseline
• While there were various coordination mechanisms mentioned by
MHPSS service providers, only few (37%) mentioned participating in any
form of coordination. Thus, the need for clearer coordination
mechanisms and an integrated approach.
• There may also be a need to promote and disseminate the IASC MHPSS
guidelines and the National Guidelines on MHPSS in Emergencies and
Disaster Situations (DOH & NDRRMC, 2017) to better familiarize mental
health professionals & service providers with a common and
standardized understanding and implementation of MHPSS in
emergency settings.
• There are still gaps in knowledge and expertise on MHPSS in
emergencies, thus, online training for service providers should be
facilitated and pooled between government, non-government and
other related agencies
MHPSS Public Health Response
● Mental health & Psychosocial Support should be a core
component of any public health response.
● Mental health & Psychosocial Support Interventions should be
carried out within the general health services (including primary
healthcare, and other pre-existing structures in the community
such as schools, community centers and youth and senior citizen
centers)
● WHO (DOH) Special Initiative for Mental Health (2019-2023)
Universal Health Coverage for Mental Health ○ Strategic Action 1
- Advancing Mental Health Policy, Advocacy and Human Rights ○
Strategic Action 2 - Scaling Up Interventions and Services Across
Communitybased, General Health and Specialist Settings