To curb suicide, teen pregnancies, Iloilo City PNP sets up help center

By: Jennifer P. Rendon 

Around midmorning of Nov. 2, 2019, July (real name withheld), 40, was found dead after committing suicide inside her rented room at Barangay Rizal Estanzuela, City Proper district, Iloilo City.

Her boardmate, Roxanne Abangan, discovered her body.

Police Colonel Jonathan Pablito, Iloilo City Police Station 1 chief, said they found no sign of foul play in July’s death.

Investigation indicated that she suffered from depression and also attempted to commit suicide before her death.

With July’s death, the Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) is about to breach the 20-case mark of suicide incidents since January 2019.

“And this number is something that we want to stop,” Police Colonel Martin Defensor, Jr., ICPO  director, said, following the opening of the Center for Community Health Education Counseling just hours after July took her own life.

On Saturday, the Iloilo City Police Station 2 and its District Advisory Council teamed up to establish the center, which will serve as venue for persons suffering from anxiety and depression. It will also address teenage pregnancy concerns.

Located at Veggie Delight Resto in La Paz district, the center was set up in collaboration with West Visayan Conference and the Association of Barangay Councils (ABCs) of La Paz and Lapuz districts.

Defensor foresaw that the center would be a big help for the people of Iloilo City, especially the youth who have emotional and mental issues.

The center will be manned by two medical experts – a psychologist and a psychiatrist – and other volunteers.

The personnel will serve for free.

The center is open every Saturday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

“We see this as one of the interventions that we could do to curb rising suicide cases and incidents of teenage pregnancy,” Defensor said.

Defensor said the number of suicide cases is already alarming and something must be done before more cases occur.

“By establishing the center, we want to convey that there are people who care about them. There’s hope and we are ready if they want to talk to someone and get counseling,” he said.

Amid the stigma attached to mental health, will it attract clients?

“I believe so. Mechanism would be in place to maintain confidentiality in treating clients,” Defensor said.

So far, the center is first in Iloilo City but Defensor said he hopes that it will be replicated in other districts.

 

ANONYMITY MAINTAINED 

Volunteers assured that there’s nothing wrong with seeking help for mental health issues.

Along that line, clients who will seek help are assured that their identities will remain confidential.

“That’s the first thing that we will observe: the strict confidentiality. We would be doing orientation and seminars among ourselves (volunteers) to ensure that it would be followed,” Dr. Janice Tupas Taleon, one of the center’s volunteers said.

Taleon, a medical officer IV of the Western Visayas Medical Center, cited Republic Act 10173 (Data Privacy Act of 2012) which makes them more cautious in dealing with clients.

Meanwhile, Taleon said there are different factors that can drive a person to take his or her own life.

“It can be inherent. Meaning, it talks about his or personality like family traits, upbringing, and the likes,” she said.

Taleon also cited external influences – social media, experiences from school like bullying, and other relationship problems.

Family problems like dysfunction or discord could also be a contributory factor.

“Abuse is also an important factor for suicide and depression,” she said.

Clients would be assessed once they go to the center to ask for help.

“In psychiatry, we use diagnostic criteria. When we say depression, the client complaints of feeling of sadness, hopelessness, restlessness and, sometimes, loss of interest on daily activities and other associated symptoms like affected ang appetite, whether decrease or increase of appetite and disturbances like they have difficulty making decision,” she said.

Taleon added that clients will be assessed depending on the symptoms that they manifest.

The center will cater to clients of all ages and status.

Screening tools will be applied, especially on minors

The screening tools include questionnaires that will ascertain if the client has symptoms associated with depression, anxiety, or the likes.

“From there, we would know the management we would apply depending on the severity of the case,” she said.

For clients below 18 years, they should be managed by child psychiatrists but there are only two of them in Iloilo City, Taleon said.

“So, we might still be referring difficult cases to my mentors,” she said.

Meanwhile, Taleon said mental health should be a topic that must be discussed.

“As of now, it’s true that there has been a rise of cases of depression in the young ones but depression in general comes in all ages,” she said.

With depression being an everyday battle for some, Taleon said she hoped they would seek help in their fight to overcome it.