A DAVAO CITY councilor is pushing for a community-based mental health and rehabilitation programs that will cater the 10,000 drug surrenderees in the city.
Councilor Mary Joselle Dilig-Villafuerte, committee chair on health, said the proposed mental health ordinance has already passed the first reading, which she said will help address the lack of mental health services in various health centers in the city.
Villafuerte said the ordinance will put on center stage the mental health issues and concern in drug addiction, which is considered a mental illness.
"We'll be starting the committee hearing on the mental health ordinance. There is a need to have this ordinance because right now, we have 10,000 drug surrenderees that we need to help," she said.
She said the bill will also prove that Davao City has nothing to do with the killings of individuals involved in illegal drug trade.
Based on the proposed law, there will be different teams in 182 village composed of doctors, psychologists, social workers and village officials to address the growing number of drug surrenderees and reduce the congestion in drug rehabilitation centers in the city.
Personnel of the Southern Philippine Medical Center's Institute of Psychology and Behavioral Medicine will train the possible team. The methods of handling the patients will depend on the drug use level to determine the kind of intervention to be given, she said.
She said that the patients will no longer have to be admitted if the case is still manageable within the community.
Although there are private and state-run mental hospitals, she said, there are no city-run services.
"We hope that with this mental health ordinance, we will convince the city health office or the city mayor to hire one psychologist per district," she said.
The move will also help the president in its campaign against illegal drugs through establishing programs that would address the drug menace.
"We want to help the mayor design a program that is community-based and will not need for them (drug surrenderees) to be put to rehab. Those who will be admitted in the mental (rehabilitation) are those who will be unmanageable," she said.