Mental Health Matters: A Collective Responsibility for Change | Fabi Cariño | TEDxUPV Women

How's your mental health? Have you been deeply depressed and unable to function? Maybe you're a functional mental health sufferer. Maybe you cover it well and others have no idea of the pain and misery that you are covering within. Ever thought about ending it all? Gosh, what a way to start to a talk, right? But this is the kind of conversation that we should be putting into the mainstream, and here's why. One in eight people are suffering from mental health conditions. That's according to the World Health Organization. Take a look at the eight people sat beside you. Who is it? Is it one? Is it two? Are there more? Maybe there's none, or maybe it is you. Now, take a look at the other groups of eight people around you. You see, the problem is everywhere. And if it's everywhere, why don't we have the resources to address it? These resources are not a nice-to-have. They are a must-have. What we need here is a mental health revolution. So let's take a step back. What causes mental health problems? Mine started at a young age, like many of us. I was six years old when my parents had a male help who was responsible for taking care of the house and taking care of me whenever my parents were away. Little did we know that he was a wolf wrapped in sheep's clothing. Although he did not physically abuse me, he abused himself in front of me regularly. Can you imagine what that can do to the development of a six-year-old child? And that was not the only kind of abuse that I had injured. I got regular emotional and physical abuse from an emotionally unstable mother passed on from a trauma coming from her parents. And because of this constant bombardment to me, this has caused me to become sad, insecure, socially isolated. I was always feeling alone. What I realized is there were no mental health resources to manage the kind of experience that I've gone through. There were no mental health resources to help me deal with the mental scars that I had to injure from the time that I was a child and as a teenager. I had to figure it out on my own. I've had a number of challenges in my life that tested my mental well-being. There was one time I lost my job, then my partner for nine years passed away. It was a living nightmare. One night, I was sitting in the dining area. I was looking at the mirror. Then I was talking to myself and asking, what was the point of carrying on living? I tried to call my parents and friends, but they didn't know what to say. All they said to me was that, get over it, Fabs, you're strong. You're supposed to be strong, but I wasn't strong. I was having suicidal ideations. So I called up the suicide hotline number, which has always been in my directory. So I called up and it just kept ringing and ringing. And as it was ringing, I was praying to God, please let someone answer the phone. But hours later, still no one answered. There was no professional help that I was able to speak to that night. So what happened? Thanks to a few glasses of Cabernet, I was able to sleep it off. Of course, I woke up the following day with a hangover. Now, I'm not promoting that alcohol saved my life, neither will it save yours. My journey of mental health and my journey of healing came with three different strategies. First, with a lot of self-care strategies. The second is sports. I got into triathlon. I learned how to swim, bike. I've learned how to do marathons. The third component, which is the most important thing for me, was redefining the purpose of my life and being. So I was frustrated with the number of times I called up for myself and called up for friends who needed help on mental health resources but couldn't find any. And I was outraged by the number of times that there were no mental health resources that were convenient. I decided to do something about it myself. So what did I do? In 2018, having a background in clinical psychology, I started a campaign called Mind Your Mind. So what I did was I created programs that I ran regularly. In fact, it started with a small group. My first group was consisting of only 15 people. But six months after that, because of the COVID lockdown, I was able to deliver a lot of talks. My objective was to create mental health resources, not only here in the Philippines but across Asia. But I realized that I needed to scale up. We need to scale up. What we need is more and more soldiers in this silent war that we have. My dream is to create one million coaches in the next five years. Now, is this necessary, you might ask? The statistics will speak for themselves. In the Philippines alone, our Gen Z, consisting of 12 to 27-year-old, there's like 45 million of them, of which 35% are suffering from depression. And that's around 16 million. And I'm just talking about the Gen Z. You might think that this is an epidemic, but you could be mistaken. Because this is not an epidemic, everyone. This is a pandemic, and it's a global pandemic. In the World Health Organization studies, 980 million are suffering worldwide with mental health problems. And 75% of them are not getting any help at all. And no accessibility when it comes to this kind of resources. That's three out of four people not getting the help. So one question that played in my mind as I was thinking of how to decide on the program on mental well-being is, who are the vulnerable groups? Because part of the problem is not knowing or not being cognizant who are the groups that are susceptible to mental illnesses. Of course, there are those that are obvious. Drug use, sexual abuse, homelessness. Others might surprise you. I was surprised myself that our senior citizen group, our OFW group, our LGBT group, people working from home, the bereaved, the unemployed, our carers, and those influenced by the pressure of social media to be perfect, and many others. If we do not act right now, let me share three consequences. The first is economic impact. Many people will tell you that we can't afford to put resources in place because of the budget for mental health care. But let me ask you, is that a false economy? Does it cost us more not to solve the problem? For example, untreated mental illness produces unproductivity, raises absenteeism, and also unemployment rate. Companies will suffer tremendous financial losses. Second consequence is that how much does mental health cost our social and family structures? Mental health illnesses affect the way we relate to one another. Increasing social isolation, addiction, and even domestic violence, as well as criminality. The third one is the impact of mental health to our physical well-being. How much does that cost our family, our social structures, and how much does it cost economically? We know what bad looks like, but the more important question is, what does good look like, and how do we get there? The simplest way of answering the first question is that good looks like having adequate care. But of course, to answer the second question, I have created a roadmap which each and every one of us can play a part in. The acronym name is AWARE. A stands for Raising Awareness. Awareness of the problem. Awareness of who is the vulnerable group. Awareness of the solutions. W is for Wellness Coaches. We need a new breed of wellness coaches who are highly empathetic, professional, and skillful, and you could be one of them. The third one is Accessibility, making it simple and easy to access all these resources that is needed, especially if you need it the most. R is Removing Stigma. In the Philippines, we don't talk about mental health because it's not part of our culture. If culture is the problem, then we need to change the culture. E is for Establishing Safe Spaces. What we need is to create a supportive environment where we can encourage open discussions for mental well-being for all. People start to heal the moment they feel heard. We will never get rid of all the mental health issues in the world, but we can mitigate and reduce the negative impact it brings to our society. If you can dream it, you can build it. Now, this is not just a dream. It's something that we can get our hands on today. So I leave you with three important things that you can do right now. First, live with personal accountability with your well-being. Your past, your trauma does not define your future. Second, let's dismantle mental health stigma and talk about it often. Third, if your organization does not have any mental health program, insist on having one. And if you already have one, great, but make sure it's coming from a place of compassion and not just compliance. Together, we will change lives, workplaces, and communities. Are you ready to be part of this revolution? Thank you. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, the best way to find yourself is to be in service to others. Over to you. Thank you.