A PROFESSOR from the University of Santo Tomas was awarded a two-year multi-million peso research grant by the Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Council for Health Research and Development for a nationwide qualitative study on mental health.

The grant was conferred on Assistant Professor Maria Carinnes Alejandria of the university’s Department of Sociology for her research on “effective mental health intervention through culturally relevant understanding of the lived experiences of the patients.”

“The project is designed as a descriptive qualitative study which will primarily employ the anthropological methods of focused ethnography to document and map the socio-cultural contexts of mental health issues among university students,” Alejandria explained.

“The participants of this study will be identified through the assistance of the research collaborators of participating private and state universities, whose locations are selected based on the cultural representations that could be generated due to a pluralistic demography,” she added.

The project aims to develop “patient-centered interventions that could have social, economic, and policy impacts.”

It will cover Manila, as well as the provinces of Albay, Benguet, Palawan, Rizal, Leyte, and Davao.

Alejandria will be joined by Simbahayan Community Development Office Director Froilan Alipao, Communications Bureau Assistant Director for Online Philippe Jose Hernandez; and Senior High School Humanities and Social Sciences Strand head Marie Antonette Quan.