A non-profit organization providing mental health services advised the public that its personnel will be taking a break to recalibrate themselves to be of better service to Filipinos.
The Philippine Mental Health Association, Inc. (PMHA) on Tuesday said that it will temporarily suspend its Remote Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (RMHPSS) starting today to recover and take a mental health break themselves.
“As much as we would like to provide prompt assistance to you, we regret to inform you that a number of our volunteers have contracted COVID-19 while our other responders had to take much-needed mental health break,” it said on a Facebook post.
The organization added that Filipinos can contact the 24/7 crisis hotline operated by the National Center For Mental Health if they needed mental health support. Their hotlines are the following:
- 1553
- 0966 351 4518
- 0908 639 2672
“Kindly wait for announcements on when we shall be re-opening our RMHPSS,” the organization further said.
The PMHA is one of the organizations providing free mental health support to Filipinos in distress during the COVID-19 pandemic.
People can avail of its remote mental health and psychosocial support through its numbers on Viber:
- 0995 093 2679
- 0918 402 9832
Earlier this year, a Catholic official said that mental health must be part of the overall COVID-19 response as restrictions and limitations during the pandemic leads one to feel isolated.
“Mental health issues and problems would be another pandemic if we’ll not be together in helping our brothers and sisters,” Camillian Father Dan Cancino, executive secretary of the bishops’ Episcopal Commission on Health Care, said last February.
Bernard Argamosa, program director of the National Center for Mental Health said that more Filipinos have been calling their hotlines since last year due to anxiety and depression brought by the pandemic.
