Marion
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Marion

I am a Teaching Associate at the Department of Behavioral Sciences, University of the Philippines, Manila. I am currently pursuing my graduate studies in clinical psychology. Outside of work, I am an active volunteer at the youth organisation, Tara Kabataan.

The development of important emotional and social skills that serve as protective factors towards mental health and wellbeing should be developed at an early age. These skills can help reduce the risk of mental illness in later years of life. Hence, protecting one’s mental health during formative years is vital.

Ginhawa Eskwela, which translates as Wellbeing School targets three main stakeholders in schools: learners, educators and guardians. The program aims to promote wellbeing in schools and support Filipino youth’s mental health. In the short term, the goals of this project are to increase mental health awareness in schools, train school stakeholders to spot warning signs of mental health concerns and capacitate school stakeholders to provide psychological first aid and service referrals for distressed students. In the long-term, I envision this project to contribute to creating safe spaces in schools to overcome stigma health so students can have increased help-seeking behaviours. Another long term goal is to create a youth mental health toolkit which can be submitted to the Department of Education for policy implications.