Date Posted:
November 22, 2021 | 11:00 am

Even before the pandemic hit our lives, mental health has been a growing concern both locally and internationally. We could not stress enough/ the need for a unified response to improve mental health care. This is the reason why different organizations and institutions are devoting time and effort to conduct mental health webinars for their stakeholders. Professor Sherill S. Villaluz, Psychology Chair and adviser was being invited by schools and youth organizations to talk about the importance of mental health and raise awareness on how it could be promoted. One lecture given by Prof Villaluz was for the Alliance of Santa Rosa Youth Organizations where she talked about The Role of Family and Friends’ Care to our Mental Health and The Signs and Symptoms of Stress, Anxiety and Depression on August 18, 2021. Another invitation was from Samahang Ikatataguyod ang Kabataan at Layunin Alay sa Bayan (SIKLAB) in Soro-Soro, Binan with their webinar entitled U-Matter: A Webinar on Mental Health Awareness and Self Care Importance on September 26. The webinar entitled “Your Mind Matters: Self-Empowerment through Cognitive Reframing” was sponsored by Looc Integrated School in Calamba City and it was presented last October 28, and also on that same date, Casa del Nino School Systems, Inc. sponsored the webinar entitled The Role of Family and Friends’ Care to our Mental Health.

The participants from these lectures were able to appreciate that mental health is really beyond a healthy body. As what DOH Secretary Duque says: “Unifying the voices of all stakeholders and advocates is needed so that everyone can share in investing time and effort for mental health. True enough, forging partnership and unifying our voices is our best chance at dealing with this task at hand.