Focus on children's mental health issues during National Children's Month

Published on: November 02, 2022

By Camille Serrano

MANILA -- The Council for the Welfare of Children will seek to address the mental health and well-being of children as the council marks the 30th National Children's Month observance on November 3.

Highlighting the theme "Health, Mind and Welfare of Every Child Our Focus," the kick-off ceremonies will gather participants from national government agencies, non-government organizations, civil society organizations, and local government units.

Undersecretary Angelo Tapales, CWC Executive Director, said this year's theme is anchored on the World Health Organization's statement that health is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."

"Many were affected during the Covid-19 pandemic. But the silent victims of the pandemic are the youth and children as there were no discussions on how the pandemic has affected them," Tapales said in a press briefing last Tuesday, October 25.

He added the CWC will also push for the review of the Mental Health Law to include children's welfare.

Results from the 2015 National Baseline Study on Violence Against Children (NBS-VAC) were published in the Philippines in 2018. They showed that children and youth aged 13 to 24 years experience high levels of physical violence (64.2%), psychological violence (61.5 %), sexual violence (22.4%), and peer violence (65%) in comparison to other age groups.

                                                                                                                                                                                         It was the first study to measure the prevalence of all forms of violence against children across the country.

The CWC MAKABATA Helpline will be formally launched during the kick-off, along with a partnership with the Miriam College Child Rights Advocacy Center (CRAC), the launch of the Partners' Play Toolkit for National Play Advocacy Week (NPAW), and the relaunch of the Mental Health Literary Pieces for Children: Story Activity Book and Airplane Paper Comic Book.

Preference: (no date) Google image result for https://nationaltoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/4568180-min-640x514.jpg . Google. Available at: https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fnationaltoday.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2022%2F09%2F4568180-min-640x514.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F %25+2Fnationaltoday.com%2Fnational-childrens-day-uk%2F&tbnid=I0x5rPA8ZYDOXM&vet=12ahUKEwip7PHdg8b7AhXhJqYKHTj-Cp4QMygpegUIARC0AQ..i&docid=kXEeyPNyaVUUnM&w=640&h=514&q=National+Children%E2%80%99s+Monthfocus%++to++children 80%99s+mental+health+issues&hl=en&ved=2ahUKEwip7PHdg8b7AhXhJqYKHTj-Cp4QMygpegUIARC0AQ (Accessed: November 24, 2022).

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