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The Facilitation Impact Awards (FIA) honours organisations that have used facilitation to achieve a measurable and positive impact as well as the facilitator(s) who worked with them. More about FIA
Gold award
Alitagtag College, Inc.
Batangas, Philippines
Client: 
Facilitators: 

Mental Health Care Mission: Helping people cope with fears after a natural disaster

Impact

Although Filipinos may be culturally adept with self-help, mutual help and resilience, this program has positively impacted everyone involved. The tools and techniques learned became effective in coping with the stress and distress experienced during the 6-months lockdown and the overall life disruption of the pandemic that began only a month after the Mental Health Care Mission.

Key results include:

  • 85% of participants reported reduced subjective units of distress
  • 100% of participants reported improved feelings, experiencing lighter emotions and increased awareness after the facilitated group process
  • 100% of participants and stakeholders reported an increased awareness of the importance of mental health and well-being
  • 100% of participants who needed a higher level of care received immediate 1:1 intervention.

Context and challenges

Alitagtag College, Inc. is a private academic institution that offers High School and under graduate courses in Elementary and Secondary Education, and Computer Science. Our mission is to provide excellent and affordable secondary and college education, holistically developing students to become contributors to society. The college is also actively involved in the community.

In the afternoon on 12 January 2020, the nearby Taal volcano erupted and the town of Alitagtag was in the danger zone of the eruption. The government declared the province under a state of calamity, and classes were suspended for 3 weeks. The residents experienced ash fall, earthquakes, cracked walls, cracked roads, evacuation, and some even lost their homes.

Alitagtag College started collecting and distributing relief goods to the victims and evacuation centers. The indigent community members of the Alitagtag College, composed of students, teaching and non-teaching employees, their families, and those nearby the school received relief goods and services as self-help and mutual-help from one another, to augment the government’s aid needed in this natural disaster.

Following the evacuation and relief operations, the need for emotional and mental health care intervention began to surface. The president of Alitagtag College, Dr. Catherine Recto-Banta, reached out to Alicia Serna from the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) Philippines, as she wanted to conduct a Mental Health Care Mission in Alitagtag.

This paved way for the opportunity to unite mental health advocates, a pool of licensed mental health professionals and students, and the IAF Philippines community to leverage on one another’s strengths to provide large-scale mental health psychosocial support to the victims of the eruption.

Project objectives

The objective was to improve the mental health condition of people impacted by the disaster and provide a higher level of mental care for those who needed it.

The aspiration was to equip participants with mental healthcare tools and techniques which will enable them to deal with any stressful, distressing or traumatic experiences. This was seen as critical in the fulfillment of Alitagtag College’s mission of providing opportunities for holistic development of its students, employees and community members.

Approach

The Mental Health Care Mission was made possible by Alitagtag College and:

  • the IAF Philippines Inc Board of Directors Michael Lu, Candy Mauricio, Judith Claridades, Severino De Castro and Alicia Serna who spearheaded the volunteer effort
  • employees from MindWell by CML Well-being and Psychological Services and volunteers from SSC-GS H.O.P.E. Community Counseling Center who provided mental health psychosocial support interventions for affected community members of the college.

The project involved 5 stages:

  1. Consultation with Alitagtag College
  2. Collaboration with experts and program design
  3. Logistic preparation and program review
  4. One-day Mental Health Care Mission
  5. Documentation, evaluation and closing.

The collaborative approach of the project leveraged the strength of facilitation guided by the IAF Core Competencies in bridging the requirements for technical and/or specialized background in delivering mental health care programs to a large and diverse group, given a significant amount of ambiguity. The program was designed with gender, multi-generational, multi-cultural and social inclusion lens.

The one-day Mental Health Care Mission was held on 17 February 2020 at the school campus for 255 students, teachers and employees of Alitagtag College. It was a facilitated group intervention where Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing - Integrated Group Treatment Protocol or EMDR-IGTP, was conducted by the volunteers guided by the IAF Core Competencies and ethical practice in the counselling and psychotherapy.

IAF Philippines Facilitators, SSC Graduate Students who were EMDR Trained (Aisha Santa Maria and Girlie Casulla), MindWell Apprentice (Joseph Rafael Rodriguez), College, Inc. and Alitagtag student volunteers.

IAF Philippines Facilitators, SSC Graduate Students who were EMDR Trained (Aisha Santa Maria and Girlie Casulla), MindWell Apprentice (Joseph Rafael Rodriguez), College, Inc. and Alitagtag student volunteers.

Offsite supervising counselors and psychologists: Dr. Lourdes Medina,  Dr. Maria Victoria Trinidad and Amor Arandia.

Offsite supervising counselors and psychologists: Dr. Lourdes Medina, Dr. Maria Victoria Trinidad and Amor Arandia.