Butuan City – “Stress is inevitable and the challenge is on how to cope with it.” This is what Ms. Khymbirly G. Caoile learned from the seminar on Mental Health Awareness.

Caoile together with her co-grantees of the EAsY Agri scholarship intervention, were among the 16 youth who satisfactorily completed the seminar which was conducted by the Agricultural Training Institute – Regional Training Center 13 on November 18-19, 2021.

Another grantee Ms. Cherry Ann Talictic expressed her gratefulness for having attended the seminar. She mentioned that the online learning system in this time of pandemic made them vulnerable to stress, thus the seminar was very timely and relevant for they were taught on how to deal with it.
One of the resource person Dr. Tristan I. Filipinas, a Psychiatrist and Medical Officer III from the Department of Health-Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center (Agusan del Sur) emphasized that mental health is affected by the things we do in every day. Dr. Filipinas discussed the common mental health issues and introduced some stress-coping mechanism that one should consider.

Meanwhile, Ms. Novalil H. Tubo, Social Welfare Officer II from the City Social Welfare and Development of Cabadbaran City, underscored that self-awareness is the key to taking care of mental health and well-being. She facilitated the psycho-social processing which helped the participants understand and improve their self-management, social awareness and building relationships with open communications.

In his closing message, Center Director Samuel L. Calonzo encouraged the participants to share what they learned from the seminar.

According to the Project Officer/DMO II, Paula Mae A. Creencia, there will be another two batches of seminar on mental health which is scheduled for this month.