DAVAO CITY- A 23-million halfway home for the mentally-challenged vagrants will soon rise at the Southern Medical Philippines Center Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Medicine (SPMC-IPBM).
The construction of the facility was approved by Mayor Inday Sara Duterte, who also secured funding support from the office of Dumper Party-list Representative Claudine Bautista. The construction work expected to start in January next year.
Mayor Sara said the halfway house is a facility for mentally challenged individuals who do not have relatives in the city and cannot be accommodated at the Southern Medical Philippines Center Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Medicine (SPMC-IPBM).
“Our Mental Wellness Center will target psychotic vagrants, we will build a house for them and after medication, we will bring them back to their families or a support center for depression and suicide,” she said.
Sara cited the support of Dumper Party-list and its willingness to help displaced psychotic vagrants and individuals suffering from depression.
“Dumper Party-list told me that they already allocated the P23 million budget for our mental health facility. So we will begin the construction in January and we will fast-track the construction,” she said.
Meanwhile, Councilor Josephine Villafuerte, the proponent for the mental health ordinance, said she already initiated talks with SPMC Medical Center Chief Dr. Leopoldo Vega for the space inside the SPMC-IPBM compound for the mental health facility.
“Within the year, we will work for the Memorandum of Usufruct with SPMC, where we target the construction of the facility,” she said.
“It will be a big help if the center will be inside the IPMB compound so that experts in mental health can also help in treating the patients (there) and also guide the mental health personnel (on what to do),” Villafuerte added. CIO