Aside from and because of the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health and wellness pose another threat to people’s lives. Civil society and development workers are in no way spared from this. Fear, stress, anxiety, depression, isolation, sadness, and grief are some of the wellbeing issues that many people are experiencing nowadays.

Because of this, mental health support has increased since last year. This was due to various challenges that CSO leaders had to face up to this point, such as accessing and mobilizing resources, complying with government-regulatory institutions, improving organizational governance and policies, and ensuring the organization’s overall survival.

In the survey, “Effects of the COVID-19 and the Implementation of the Government-Mandated Community Quarantine on CSOs”, conducted by CODE-NGO and the Partnership of Philippine Support Service Agencies (PHILSSA), one of the identified support and in-demand assistance that CSOs would like to receive is the conduct of Wellness, Mental Health, and Psychosocial Support. In response, CODE-NGO through its Commission on Institution and Capacity Building (CICB), offered a wellness and mental health session series.

The #WeCare: Session Series on Reinforcing Mental Health and Wellness for Development Workers was conducted from August to September 2021 to help improve the coping mechanisms and resilience of the leaders and staff of CODE-NGO’s member networks (MNs) and their member base organizations (MBOs). The session series also helped them understand concepts of wellness, well-being, and mental health, and how to integrate mental health interventions, activities, policies, and/or guidelines in their organizations.

The following were the sessions conducted:

• #SelfCare: Embracing self and wellbeing in everyday experience of life
• #CommunityCare: Establishing peer support system in dealing with challenges and uncertainties 
• #WorkCare: Flourishing a safe space  and supportive environment for the humanitarian and development workers 
• Community Well-being and Resiliency: The CRM Wellness Skills

The sessions were facilitated by three esteemed resource persons:

1. Kirk Patrick Castro, RGC, RPM – Chief Executive Director and Founder of Gestalt Wellness Institute Southeast Asia 

2. Lenbi Laborte, RPM – Executive Director of Central Visayas Network of NGOs (CENVISNET) and Convenor of the Wellbeing Cluster PH

3. Edgar Gahisin, RN MN – Director of the Community Extension Services, University of Southern Philippines Foundation and Trainer for mental health and psychosocial support (Psychological First Aid and Psychological Support) and Community Resiliency Model (CRM) Wellness Skills

Testimonials:

“The sessions made me realize the importance of taking care of one’s self to better serve one’s organization and communities. Also, the session opened the opportunity of integrating mental health to the overall structure, management, and operations of my  organization.”

 – Katlea Itong

Project Manager, Philippine Partnership for the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (PhilDHRRA)

“There is a need to institute appropriate policies for mental health, wellness, and resilience in our organization. The pandemic has highlighted how these aspects of our work cannot be sacrificed. Through the sessions, we have been given an idea on how to go about it.”

– Lionel PetersDeputy Executive Director, Andres Soriano Foundation

It is evident that the #WeCare sessions and similar wellness interventions are needed and helpful to individuals in terms of debriefing emotions and creating a nurturing environment in the workplace and the community.

CODE-NGO continues to help institutionalize interventions, activities, and/or policies on safe space and supportive workplace. #WeCare at CODE-NGO, CENVISNET and the Western Visayas Network of Social Development NGOs (WEVNet) are the CICB technical working group of this capacity-building initiative.