Okay lang ako: A short feature on coping loss of a loved one due to suicide and mental health awareness amongst adolescents

• Main Authors: Quindoza, Ivy, Si, Bianca, Villegas, Angelo
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2017
• Subjects: Bereavement > Drama; Bereavement > Psychological aspects > Drama; Suicide > Philippines > Drama; Depression in adolescence > Philippines > Drama; Mental health > Philippines > Drama; Communication
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/6357
• Institution: De La Salle University

This paper tackles the various effects of losing a loved one and the ways to cope with the death of a loved one especially due to suicide. This also deals with factors that lead to suicide such as peer pressure, severe anxiety, and depression. Mental health illnesses may not always be detectable yet it exists and affects many people. It could take on forms like smiling depression wherein the person experiencing it will generally appear to be happy and normal. In the Philippine setting, over 4.5 million cases of depression were reported in 2004. Out of this 4.5 million, three percent of Filipinos are clinically diagnosed as depressed. There would only be thirty out of ninety depressives who will try to seek help while the other thirty will be ashamed to seek help because of the stigma branded to depression (NGF). Losing a family member is something most people are afraid of, especially parents who do not expect to outlive their children. For parents, losing a child is one excruciating event that would occur in their life, no matter what the age of the child at the time of death . (Bower, Pearl 2010) The purpose of this paper is to create a film that will expose the reality of loss and the pain that the person experiences. The researchers wanted to highlight in the film how people, even the most unlikely, can be struggling with mental health illnesses that could even escalate to suicide. The effect on the family that is left behind brings about grief and despair.