Department of Health(DOH)

Hi John Ferdie Hilario Please be informed that your request has been endorsed to the Disease Prevention and Control Bureau. Kindly await for their response, thank you

July 2, 2020 Dear John Ferdie Hilario, Greetings! Thank you for your request dated Jun 16, 2020 08:58:13 AM under Executive Order No. 2 (s. 2016) on Freedom of Information in the Executive Branch. Your Request You asked for Number of reported Depression cases in the Philippines. Response to Request Your FOI request is approved. Thank you very much for your interest in research for the purpose of your thesis. I have received your request letter on information and statistics pertaining to the Mental Health Program, specifically: 1.) Number of reported Depression cases in the Philippines; and 2.) Top 5 Regions and Municipalities with highest depression cases. Specific datasets requested are yet to be retrieved from different offices/units, and some of the research are not yet done or are yet to be conducted. We are also limited to what we can provide as baselines for different mental health conditions (e.g., suicide, depression) are yet to be strengthen and established. Here is a list of partner offices to which you can find the information you have requested. National Center for Mental Health - Depression Statistics (to be set up) *only estimates are available Knowledge Management and Information System (KMITS) - Region and Municipalities with the highest Depression cases To help you, we would like to share with you latest Mental Health Atlas 2017 (https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/272735/9789241514019-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y) as reference. This is our country profile (https://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/atlas/profiles-2017/PHL.pdf?ua=1). You may also request additional information from the Knowledge Management and Information Technology Service (KMITS), specifically on depression through the iClinicSYs, an integrated clinic information system but that would require a considerable amount of time for processing. We suggest that you source data from the National Center for Mental Health especially since they have recently launched the new NCMH CRISIS HOTLINE. They are also the national observatory and repository of mental health research as stated in the Mental Health Act (RA11036). As a national specialty center on mental health conditions, they may be able to help you with the information that you need. Currently, we can only share with you the contents of the program (https://www.doh.gov.ph/national-mental-health-program) and the efforts of the department and other stakeholders. Some of the statistics we have used were from our partners from WHO. If you require any further information, feel free to contact me. Thank you very much. Your right to request a review If you are unhappy with this response to your FOI request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response by writing to Undersecretary Lilibeth C. David, Chair of Data Governance Oversight Committee/ DOH Central Appeals and Review Committee, at [email protected]. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made within 15 calendar days from the date when you received this letter. We will complete the review and tell you the result within 30 calendar days from the date when we receive your review request. If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Office of the President under Administrative Order No. 22 (s. 2011). Thank you. Respectfully, Dr. Kenneth Ronquillo FOI Receiving Officer