A comparison of traumatic experiences and human rights violations of persons with mental health conditions or psychosocial disabilities and persons with other disabilities.

This study compares the traumatic and human rights violation experiences of persons with mental health conditions or psychosocial disabilities and those of persons with other disabilities in the Philippines. Additionally, the role of gender in exposure to traumatic experience and human rights protection levels is explored. Of those registered as persons with disabilities in the city of Muntinlupa, 3000 subjects were randomly selected and 1,024 among them (Male = 510, Female = 512, Others = 2) agreed to participate in this study. This comparative study adopts a cross-sectional design. The survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire. The researchers mobilized health workers, officially recruited by the city, to visit the target participants' houses and to distribute the questionnaires to collect data. The questionnaire comprises items related to the participants' socio-demographic characteristics, exposure to traumatic experiences, and human rights-based well-being. Regarding the frequency of exposure to traumatic experiences, a little difference was found in physical domestic violence (abuse) between the two groups (Frequency = 20 (9.66), 44 (5.39%), χ2 = 5.154, p < 0.05). Regarding human rights-based well-being, no significant difference was found between persons with mental health conditions or psychosocial disabilities and persons with other disabilities. However, the human rights-based well-being of women with mental health conditions or psychosocial disabilities was significantly worse than that of women with other types of disabilities. Concrete and day-to-day human rights challenges in several areas in addition to inaccessibility to various services may have contributed to the human rights challenges encountered by women with mental health conditions or psychosocial disabilities. De-stigmatization of women with mental health conditions or psychosocial disabilities, the implementation of awareness-raising campaigns on various levels, and developing capacity of women with mental health conditions or psychosocial disabilities on how to protect their own rights may help improve the status quo.

Effectiveness of Psychological First Aid e-Orientation among the General Population in Muntinlupa, the Philippines.

This present study examined the effectiveness of the Psychological First Aid (PFA) e-orientation as well as face-to-face PFA orientation among the general population in Muntinlupa City, the Philippines. The e-orientation group consisted of 150 participants who received a two-hour PFA e-orientation (male: 47, female: 97, others: 6, mean age: 33.4 (SD = 12.1)), the face-to-face (F2F) group consisted of 139 participants who received a two-hour face-to-face PFA orientation (male: 41, female: 95, others: 3, mean age: 35.0 (SD = 13.8)), and the control group consisted of 117 participants who received a two-hour face-to-face health promotion orientation for obesity (male: 48, female: 65, others: 4, mean age: 34.2 (SD = 13.8)). In order to see the effect of these interventions, the confidence to provide PFAs was compared between the pre- and post-interventions in each group with paired t-tests. Further, the number of correct answers regarding the knowledge on PFA was also compared between the pre- and post-interventions utilizing a McNemar test. The results demonstrated that the mean scores on the confidence increased significantly in the e-orientation (pre: 25.1 (SD = 4.7), post: 26.1 (SD = 5.3), p = 0.02) and F2F (pre: 26.2 (SD = 6.0), post: 29.6 (SD = 6.9), p < 0.01) groups. Regarding knowledge on PFA, in the e-orientation group, the number of those who answered correctly increased significantly in a question (pre: 10, post: 24, p = 0.01), and there was a trend for improvement in another question (pre: 63, post: 76, p = 0.06). In the F2F group, the number of those who answered correctly increased significantly in two questions (pre: 21, post: 38, p < 0.01, and pre: 5, post: 14, p = 0.05), and there were trends for improvement in two questions (pre: 69, post: 82, p = 0.06, and pre: 17, post: 27, p = 0.09), while in the control group, there were no significant differences in any of the questions between pre- and post-intervention. The results suggest that both the PFA e-orientation and face-to-face orientation are effective for the general population in terms of increasing confidence and knowledge related to PFA.