CALAMBA CITY
(PIA) – Health authorities
have urged public schools
and local governments in
the Calabarzon region to
support their initiatives in
promoting sex education
and mental health awareness among the youth.
Through the
TEENDig Kabataan! Kalusugan ay Pahalagahan
adolescent-friendly facility,
the Department of Health
(DOH) Calabarzon seeks
to reach more teenagers
in the community who
will benefit from the facility’s long-term health and
well-being services.
Program Coordinator Dr. Jaira Evangelista
said they need to expand
the facility to be able to
reach more barangays
and families in the region.
“We need the
help of the Department of
the Interior and Local Government to make sure that
we also have the commitment of local chief executives in bringing these services to their constituents,”
Evangelista said.
The “T.E.E.NDig
project was piloted at the
Antipolo National High
School in March to provide health services such
as general health assessment history and physical
exam, counseling, and
psychosocial risk assessment and management.
In partnership
with the Department of Education (DepEd), the project aims to equip schools
to provide on-site health
services that will strengthen the students’ psychosocial and mental well-being.
This includes reproductive health assessment
and counseling, as well as
other health services under the national HIV, AIDS
and STI prevention and
control, adolescent reproductive health, national
aedes-borne viral disease
prevention and control,
national tuberculosis control, and food and waterborne disease prevention
and control.
Citing data from
the Commission on Population and Human Development (POPCOM),
Evangelista said the
youth’s exposure to inappropriate contents through
technology has contributed to the rise of adolescent pregnancies in the
region.
Studies have
likewise shown that lack
of proper information due
to culture and values –
such that sex education
remains a sensitive issue
in Filipino homes – prevent
teenagers from protecting
themselves.
The DOH Calabarzon reported that only
11.4 percent of teenagers
reported having discussed
sex and sexual health at
home. Meanwhile, 64.3
percent say they prefer
discussing sex and reproduction with their friends of
the same gender.
Meanwhile, other teenagers reported
having access to medical
professionals (45.9 percent), while some are said
to have no information on
reproductive health at all
(41.1 percent).
In 2020, the DOH
noted that the Philippines
logged the second highest teen pregnancy rate in
Asia at 14, 948 live births
by teenage mothers. Then
President Rodrigo Duterte
declared teenage pregnancy as a national health
emergency.
Meanwhile, the
Covid-19 pandemic also
took a toll on the mental
health of youngsters. Data
from the DOH show that
16.8 percent of teenagers
in the country reported to
have attempted suicide.
Meanwhile, 13.3 percent
of teenagers in the Calabarzon region reported to
have done the same.
