After recording a total of 88 personnel and patients infected by COVID-19, the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) in Mandaluyong City has been forced to limit admissions due to the strain in its manpower and resources.
According to NCMH chief Roland Cortez, the Department of Health-run mental health facility will continue to accept psychiatric patients. However, they would admit only severe cases, such as suicidal individuals or those prone to harming themselves or others, in the meantime.
“If it’s something like anxiety disorder, we are telling people that for now, we will not take them in,” he said.
[READ: Pandemic anxiety is a thing, and here’s how you can deal with it]
As of Apr. 28, 71 NCMH personnel and 17 psychiatric patients are left positive for COVID-19 after 11 employees and a patient were already deemed to have recovered. Currently, 55 of the infected employees are on home quarantine while five are confined in other hospitals.
According to Inquirer, a check of the NCMH website showed that it had a total of 1,981 personnel count in 2015. This consists of 116 doctors, 1,020 nursing staff, 160 medical ancillary personnel and 683 administrative support staff.
Controversy rose earlier as NCMH’s former chief officer Clarita Avila, who has been with the center for 50 years, brought up the hospital’s dire situation to the public as both employees and patients were allegedly left extremely vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19.
After making the allegation, the Health department reassigned Avila to the Drug Abuse Treatment and Rehabilitation Center in Las Piñas.
These come amid psychologists’ warnings on the pandemic possibly aggravating mental health issues. In fact, Mental Health America’s screening data showed a 19 percent increase in screening for clinical anxiety in the first weeks of February and a 12 percent increase in the first two weeks of March, suggesting the rise of associated anxiety cases to COVID-19.
Header photo by Tetch Torres-Tupas for Inquirer.net
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