Various mental health experts said that there is a surge of Filipinos experiencing mental health issues since the onset of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), South China Morning Post reported.
The report said many Filipinos continue to battle mental health crises caused by the developments in the Philippines amid the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
While there is no official figure regarding the surge in suicides and attempts, experts believe more Filipinos are taking their own lives as the number of COVID-19 cases in the country continue to grow and unemployment rose to 45.5 percent or 27.3 million—reported South China Morning Post.
According to Sharlene Ongoco, a doctor with the Philippine National Centre for Mental Health, their crisis hotline receives an average of 30 to 40 calls daily, twice as high as the number of calls they used to receive between May 2019 and February 2020.
The surge in suicide cases led to Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, a member of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, to urge religious leaders to provide guidance to the public during these difficult times.
“It was the first thing we thought of, but we know that it is not the only solution. And the religious leaders were quick to answer,” he told the South China Morning Post.
