At the start of each New Year, fireworks are on full display that illuminate the darkness of midnight and sweep away the ills of the year past. Shouts of Happy New Year reverberate as kisses, hugs, and embraces abound to convey wishes of joy and love to all, even if only for the moment. New Year always symbolizes a chance for a new life, a fresh start with renewed hopes for a new beginning. You forget the past mistakes and sorrows and resolve to do better in the morrow. It’s a wonderful life after all, isn’t it?

But for some, the foibles and follies of human nature and life’s hardships sometimes would get the better of us and could drag our spirits to the lows of hopeless despair. For anyone bereaved who has lost a loved one, ironically, it is during the most festive of all seasons when joy and happiness should be at its zenith that depression can bring a man to the depths of his nadir because of happy Yuletide memories that have now been replaced with sadness and loneliness.

Then there are the unfortunate souls, particularly among the young, whose state of maturity and mental health are such that ending life is viewed to be the only path to escape hopelessness, loneliness, and desperation. They forget how wonderful life can be.

You need not look too far to see the steady streaming of reminders of Hopeline PH 24/7’s emotional crisis hotline on ANC during their daily digital broadcast that if you are feeling low and have lost hope, to dial a number and a counselor will always be on hand to chat with you, an ongoing advocacy of fashion icon Jeanne Goulbourn, a recent guest speaker in our Rotary club whose advocacy we support, who unhesitatingly explains why she is on her crusade for people to be aware of the sorrows that not attending to mental health can bring. She lost her daughter, Natsha, to suicide, and she regrets to this day that she had no clue that Natsha was mentally unwell, a malady that afflicts millions of our youth.                               

In a 2021 nationwide survey of the University of the Philippines Population Institute, close to 1.5 million youths had tried ending their life, approximately 7.5 percent of our young ones, representing a 4.5 percent increase from the previous survey in 2013. The National Center for Mental Health reported that there was a 57 percent jump in suicides to 4,420 in 2020 from 2,810 deaths in 2019, exacerbated by social media pressures that triggered a lack of self-worth and sudden isolation brought about by the Covid lockdown.

UPPI further reported that alarmingly, 1 out of every five youths considered suicide out of the 10,949 randomly surveyed with ages ranging from 15 to 24 years old. Of these, 6 out of 10 did not reach out to anyone about it, and of those who did, 25 percent chose to consult close friends compared to only 4 percent who sought help from their parents.

To snap out of such melancholy, early detection and counseling or proper medication is crucial for the prevention of suicides, but unfortunately, only 4 percent surveyed chose to seek professional help, and only 1 out of 10 are aware of any preventive program or service.  Furthermore, there continues to be a social stigma attached to mental wellness that should rightly be treated by mental health professionals and made treatable with medication if need be, like any other health issue. The DoH reported that about 3.6 million Filipinos had mental illness in 2020, but it was likely much higher since a greater number was unreported due either to economic or social barriers or simply lack of access to professional mental health professionals.

DoH, in a 2022 National Mental Health Summit, noted that there are only three professionals for every 100,000 Filipinos and espoused the need to “democratize mental health services” by enabling primary health care frontliners to learn how to detect mental problems symptoms and to refer to the appropriate licensed professionals in such cases. This is an advocacy that the Rotary supports and is a major service area of focus. RC Makati is working with the NGF Foundation of Goulbourn on how we can support this need for training frontliners, such as teachers in particular.

A feel-good classic Yuletide 1946 movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” is the traditional go-to of millions every Christmas Eve, particularly Americans. It’s a story about George, a family man who always had the best interests of others ahead of his own needs. He gave up college and dreams of a career to give way to his sibling. Shades of our OFW, aren’t they? As a consequence of his sacrifices, he is stuck in a small town managing a buildings and loans association but still can help hundreds of townspeople along the way.

He is, however, beset by a financial scandal not of his own doing that could mean ruin and a prison term. He decides to commit suicide out of frustration for what he believes is a life wasted. An angel, however, comes to his rescue but brings him to a town and the people whose lives were drastically changed because he was not around to help. George changes his mind and begs God to bring him back to his town.

As he returns home, he discovers all his friends and family have gathered to chip in their meager savings to bail him out of financial ruin. The moral of the story? With the support and love of family and friends, one should never lose sight of how wonderful life is.

Until next week… OBF!

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