CALAMBA CITY (PIA) – Health authorities have urged public schools and local governments in the Calabarzon region to support their initiatives in promoting sex education and mental health awareness among the youth.
Through the TEENDig Kabataan! Kalusugan ay Pahalagahan adolescent-friendly facility, the Department of Health (DOH) Calabarzon seeks to reach more teenagers in the community who will benefit from the facility’s long-term health and well-being services.
Program Coordinator Dr. Jaira Evangelista said they need to expand the facility to be able to reach more barangays and families in the region.
“We need the help of the Department of the Interior and Local Government to make sure that we also have the commitment of local chief executives in bringing these services to their constituents,” Evangelista said.
The “T.E.E.NDig project was piloted at the Antipolo National High School in March to provide health services such as general health assessment history and physical exam, counseling, and psychosocial risk assessment and management.
In partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd), the project aims to equip schools to provide on-site health services that will strengthen the students’ psychosocial and mental well-being.
This includes reproductive health assessment and counseling, as well as other health services under the national HIV, AIDS and STI prevention and control, adolescent reproductive health, national aedes-borne viral disease prevention and control, national tuberculosis control, and food and waterborne disease prevention and control.
Citing data from the Commission on Population and Human Development (POPCOM), Evangelista said the youth’s exposure to inappropriate contents through technology has contributed to the rise of adolescent pregnancies in the region.
Studies have likewise shown that lack of proper information due to culture and values – such that sex education remains a sensitive issue in Filipino homes – prevent teenagers from protecting themselves.
The DOH Calabarzon reported that only 11.4 percent of teenagers reported having discussed sex and sexual health at home. Meanwhile, 64.3 percent say they prefer discussing sex and reproduction with their friends of the same gender.
Meanwhile, other teenagers reported having access to medical professionals (45.9 percent), while some are said to have no information on reproductive health at all (41.1 percent).
In 2020, the DOH noted that the Philippines logged the second highest teen pregnancy rate in Asia at 14, 948 live births by teenage mothers. Then President Rodrigo Duterte declared teenage pregnancy as a national health emergency.
Meanwhile, the Covid-19 pandemic also took a toll on the mental health of youngsters. Data from the DOH show that 16.8 percent of teenagers in the country reported to have attempted suicide. Meanwhile, 13.3 percent of teenagers in the Calabarzon region reported to have done the same. (PB)
