Towards A Sustainable Community Mental Health Program: Understanding Its Manpower Needs And Building Its Workforce Strategy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69980/ajpr.v28i5.546Keywords:
community mental health program, CALABARZON, Region IVA, PhilippinesAbstract
In program management, manpower is considered as one of the fundamental resources and aspects to consider for successful execution. The manpower needs are crucial for understanding and managing operational efficiency and program sustainability and outcomes.
One of the important health initiatives of the Philippine government in recent years is the community mental health program. This has been rolled out since 2019 in Region IVA, Philippines (also known as CALABARZON). This highlights the referral pathway between primary health care centers and mental health facilities for the management of persons with mental health conditions. Based on the review of its initial implementation, this initiative has able to achieve an estimated 11% cost-saving on the government’s expenditures on mental health. To sustain this successful result, this study has been conceived with the objectives of determining the program’s manpower needs and of recommending actions to address any gaps for a more sustainable quality management of this community mental health program
There are 409 healthcare workers assigned in this program who were part of the study. The majority of them are female and bachelor graduates, whose ages range from 31-40 years old. The manpower needs of the program include proper training, a good incentive scheme, and higher pay for healthcare workers. As such, the study proposed two approaches: (1) supporting the continuous competence training and capability building initiatives, and (2) developing incentive- payment schemes for the community mental health workers
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