THE suicides of comedian-actor Robin Williams on August 14, 2014 and recently of television personality Antony Bourdain both elicited words of caution from health authorities to people who are facing depression.
In truth, the advisories are empty in the face of a growing yet neglected health problem the country is being confronted with. Beyond the advisory and some phone numbers, depression sufferers are told to call for help, this country has hardly come up with an honest-to-goodness health program to support those suffering from mental illness.
There are hardly statistics on the number of Filipinos suffering from mental disorder, or the average annual death rate from this neglected illness. Filipinos suffering from this "monkey on the back" can do nothing but howl in the wilderness for we do lack support institutions to hear and listen to their plea for understanding and support.
Beyond its occasional advisory to sufferers in the wake of a personality's death due to depression, the Department of Health can do well to develop and establish a national program for mental health, something we are reminded of each time a celebrity's suicide is the news.
Health authorities cannot just shrug their shoulders, saying psychiatry is hardly attractive to incoming doctors who are more attracted to financially lucrative fields like surgery, cardiology and even oncology wherein some terminal patients are sometimes reportedly given false hopes of recovery.
To attract more fresh doctors into specializing in psychiatry, it is incumbent on the Department of Health to come up with incentives to those venturing into this badly needed medical field.
Despite reports to the contrary, that our incoming generations of healers are out to recoup their families' expenses bringing them to medical school, there are still idealists among our newcomers who carry on the torch of service that many of their predecessors in Baguio are known for.
We are sure there are young doctors out there in the mold of the late Dr. Asela Talco-Casem, she who developed the psychiatric ward of the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center into the department that it is today.
Dr. Asela had wanted to become a pediatrician, but was told the only position available was for the psychiatric ward. She took on the challenge and developed the ward into what is today – the only psychiatry department in Northern and Central Luzon today.
Because of the heart and quality she put into her work, Dr. Asela was invited to head a psychiatric facility in Australia that would have given her the break many doctors search for today. After signing the papers, she thought of what she would leave behind, mostly her patients and the future of the psychiatric department. So she wrote to explain why she had to decline her new position.
In the middle of her work, Asela developed kidney failure and, with support of her siblings, underwent transplant.
Years later, she had to lead a mission to Tinoc, Ifugao after learning some of the townsfolk were psychologically affected by the crash-landing of a government helicopter in their midst.
She, however, forgot her daily dosage to prevent rejection of the implanted kidney donated by her brother, Engr. Albert Talco. When she came back to Baguio another kidney transplant was arranged. It was not meant to be. While preparing for the trip to the National Kidney Institute, she suffered a fatal heart attack.
That reminds us of another urgent need the Health Department should focus on. As it is with its Psychiatric Department, the Baguio General Hospital's Dialysis Center is swamped with people from all over Luzon seeking a slot for their twice or thrice-a-week dialysis sessions for life. Outside the building, you see ambulances from the provinces bringing in psychiatric patients.
It's been long overdue for the Health Department to establish psychiatric and dialysis centers in all provincial hospitals in the country. E-mail: mondaxbench@yahoo.com for comments.
