The provincial government here will bring its Program for the Resilience of Iloilo in Mind and Emotion (PRIME), an initiative on mental health and psychosocial interventions for resilience building, to public schools in Iloilo to provide intervention on social media management.

Governor Arthur Defensor Jr., in a media conference on Wednesday, said the program started during the health pandemic as a psychosocial response for overseas Filipino workers and Ilonggos who are suffering from the collective effects of quarantine.

Already a full-blown program, it has a 24-hour helpline for mental health, focused on referral and counseling.

Defensor said PRIME in public schools aims to address suicide cases, mostly due to the effects of social media.

“Mental health is a national emergency. Yearly, there is an average of 70 suicide cases, and that’s a national emergency,” he said.

The program is expected to be launched next week.

It will be implemented in partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd), Department of Health, Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office, Integrated Bar of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, among others.

“We want to be in the schools together with national government agencies in PRIME for MorProGRess Iloilo. We want to be there to give intelligent intervention in the handling of social media,” Defensor said.

MorProGRess Iloilo stands for the “Movement for a Robust, Progressive and Globally competitive, and Resilient Province of Iloilo”, a whole-of-province approach to achieving the province’s social justice agenda.

Through the program, Defensor said they want to assure learners that if they have problems with social media, authorities are there to help.

“Children are helpless on social media,” he added.

They will also be helping parents in regulating their children’s use of social media, although not in a technical way.

Meanwhile, Defensor said the provincial government is also exploring ways to help schools strengthen their security following the tragic incident at a school in Tacloban City. (PNA)