8 October 2020 —The Department of Health (DOH), in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), urged the public to learn more about general mental health by enrolling in the free QualityRights Mental Health e-training course developed by WHO and translated in Filipino in partnership with the DOH.

The WHO QualityRights e-learning program is a global initiative that aims to improve access to quality mental health and social services and promote the rights of people with mental health conditions, psychosocial, intellectual and cognitive disabilities.

In September 2019, a national level ‘training of trainers’ QualityRights workshop was held to create a pool of national experts and champions available and able to support the QualityRights rollout efforts in the Philippines and coach people throughout the e-learning course.

To support this effort, the DOH established a QualityRights Coordinating Committee which oversees and steers the rollout of the e-learning course on a national scale — one of the core interventions in the 5-year Strategic Plan of the Philippine Council for Mental Health and implementing the Mental Health Act.

The WHO QualityRights e-learning course was officially launched during the World Mental Health Day on October 10, 2019, at the 3rd Public Health Summit of the DOH, and was made possible by the strong collaboration between WHO, DOH, and Mental Health partners in the Philippines.

Participants in the e-learning course will be able to:

● Improve their own mental health.

● Learn how to support friends, family and members of the community who experience mental health problems.

● Gain knowledge and skills to promote human rights and help tackle stigma, abuse and coercion experienced by people with mental health conditions or psychosocial, intellectual and cognitive disabilities.

● Gain valuable expertise and skills to help transform services towards promoting human rights and implementing a person-centred, recovery approach.

Participants of the free online course will join over 20,000 learners on mental health in Filipino, and upon completion of the e-learning course, will receive an official and personalized WHO QualityRights e-learning certificate.

“Mental health is a major public health concern that needs to be openly discussed and addressed. With the e-learning modules translated in Filipino, we hope to educate more people and facilitate more discussions that will ultimately help us understand and address the need of Filipinos with mental health conditions, and other intellectual and cognitive disabilities,” said Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III, explaining how the translated modules could help stir up discussions on mental health.

Health workers, policy makers, families or community members who are interested in this e-learning course can register for free at http://bit.ly/QualityRightsPH

For more information, contact:

Frances Prescilla Cuevas, National Mental Health Program Manager, Department of Health, [email protected], +63 918 901 8526

Jun Ryan Orbina, Communications Officer, World Health Organization Philippines, [email protected], +63 906 438 6312