Hospitals as Schools Partners in Mental Health Service Provision

This is a guest post by Prof. Jerome Babate , Chairman of the Board of the RO DIAGAN Cooperative Hospital in General Santos City.

There is a little shift of my focus this time as this is largely intrigued by a host of problems encountered by our schools on health aspects (food poisoning, malnourishment, among others). The nurse in my persona prodded me to look into school issues from the lens of a health care consultant. 

Personally, I recognize that school success is facilitated by factors in students' lives such as psychological health, supportive social relationships, positive health behaviors, and schools free of violence and drugs. Accordingly, mental or psychological health in childhood and adolescence is defined by the achievement of expected developmental cognitive, social, and emotional milestones. Mental health leads to the student's developing satisfying social relationships, and demonstrating effective coping skills. Let us remember that mentally healthy children and adolescents enjoy a positive quality of life; function well at home, in school, and in their communities. Reads interesting and idealistic!

However, to attain such state, we need a collaborative and coordinated effort among schools, families, and communities to ensure that all children and adolescents achieve positive academic and behavioral outcomes.

One of the most important of these positive outcomes is psychological competence, a set of skills and attitudes that leads to positive mental health and a strong sense of well-being.To that end, I advocate the inclusion of comprehensive mental health services in the schools, emphasizing prevention and early intervention.

Having mentioned earlier, schools are the logical point of entry to develop the efficacy of mental health services to children and adolescents. As a suggestion, our schools in the urban areas may partner with our hospitals (its one way of developing the latter's corporate social responsibility) to craft mental health services for children. School-based and school-linked services can be designed to address students' mental health needs using a range of service options ranging from prevention to intensive intervention.  The key to making mental health services effective is to ensure that they are accessible to students and families