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San Diego’s No. 1 Source of News & Information for the Filipino Community • An Award-Winning Newspaper Since 1986 November 3, 2023 - November 9, 2023
www.thefilipinopress.com • (619) 434-1720
SWS: Almost half of Filipino families rate themselves 'poor'
MANILA -- The number of Filipinos who rated themselves poor increased to 13.2 million or 48% in September from 12.5 million or 45% last June, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll showed. The non-commissioned SWS survey, conducted from September 28 to October 1, also revealed that 27% of Filipinos viewed themselves as "borderline." The remaining 25% considered themselves not poor. The three-point rise in the nationwide self-rated poor figure between June and September 2023 was due to increases in all areas, with Mindanao recording the highest increase in families who rated themselves poor at 71%, which is a seven-point increase from the previous 54%. Self-rated poor families in Balance Luzon also jumped to 39% from 35%, while self-rated poor families in Metro Manila also climbed to 38% from 35%. Likewise, self-rated poor families in the Visayas increased to 59% from 57%. Newly poor The same SWS survey also showed that of the 13.2 million Filipino families who rated themselves poor, 1.8 million or 6.6% rated themselves as newly poor, 1.7 million or 6.1% were usually poor and 9.7 million or 35.3% were always poor SWS defined newly poor as those
A CLOUDY ALL SAINTS' DAY. Families flock to the Manila North Cemetery on a cloudy Wednesday (Nov. 1, 2023) to visit their dear departed and commemorate All Saints’ Day. The weather bureau earlier forecast cloudy skies with scattered rains and thunderstorms over Metro Manila due to a low-pressure area and the shear line. (MNS photo) who were non-poor one to four years ago, while usually poor are those who were non-poor five or more years ago. Always poor, on the other hand, was defined as those who never
experienced being non-poor. The survey also showed that of the 14.3 million families who responded they were borderline or not poor, five million or 8.9% said they were newly
OpSam Offers Easy-to-Access Mental Healthcare OpSam Offers Easy-to-Access Mental Healthcare
SAN DIEGO, CA -- Ever tried booking an appointment with a therapist? Once you go through all the red tape, it can take weeks or even months until you get your appointment. That’s why OpSam Health has recently “redesigned our behavioral health department from top to bottom,” says John Laidlaw, OpSam’s director of behavioral health. OpSam is all about making it fast, easy, and accessible for their clients to receive the services they and their loved ones need. Most of us have heard of mental health. But what is behavioral health? It’s simply a broader category. It includes treatment of mental health disorders like anxiety, depression, and bipolar, but also includes PTSD, addiction, and substance abuse. Sometimes patients have what Laidlaw describes as “co-occurring disorders.” In other words, they have depression and are addicted to a drug like marijuana. Diagnosing them is tricky, because anxiety and depression can cause substance abuse, but substance abuse can cause or contribute to anxiety and depression. Americans are becoming more comfortable talking about and acknowledging mental illness; it’s become accepted and normalized, says Laidlaw. According to a 2023 Gallup poll, 29% of U.S. adults reported having been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives. Many times, it goes undiagnosed and untreated. Anxiety disorders, which are different from simply feeling anxious, are the world’s most common mental disorder, according to the World Health Organization. It was in response to the growing need for behavioral health services
John Laidlaw OpSam's Director of Behavioral Health
that OpSam streamlined and expedited its services by cutting back on red tape, removing unnecessary steps, and focusing on accessibility and speed. “It’s about how fast somebody can get in for an appointment,” he emphasizes. “Timely access to care is so important.” How fast are we talking about? “If somebody calls us on Monday and wishes to see a therapist,” says Laidlaw, “most of the time we can get them in the next day and sometimes the same day.” What about people who are too busy to come in, or who don’t have transportation? OpSam Health offers telehealth, a service they launched during Covid and have maintained. This allows patients to speak with a therapist over the phone or via Zoom. Telehealth is an important part of their accessibility initiative – to provide behavioral healthcare that is equitable
and convenient for everyone. No should be left behind, no matter their circumstances. For clients who aren’t facing transportation or other barriers that may prevent them from coming to the OpSam clinic, face-to-face therapy is always preferable. It seems to be working. “We don't have a waitlist anymore, says Laidlaw. “We've served twice as many people as last year in behavioral health. That’s something we're particularly happy with.” Roughly, 50 percent of their patients are Filipino and 50% Latino. Be aware of how social media is affecting your children and/or grandchildren, he advises. Social media has benefits but also a lot of negative consequences that come with it, he says. “We're seeing an increase in rates of depression and anxiety and, unfortunately, suicide in youth and adolescents.” Some members of the Filipino community, depending on their age and generation, may have never been to therapy. There used to be a stigma, but that’s going away. Therapy is not scary or weird, he says. “The message we want to communicate is that it's okay to talk with somebody. And it's okay not to be okay. Sometimes just talking with somebody about what's going on can do a lot. There are a lot of people that struggle with their mental health. You are not alone.” “We take a lot of time to teach about really what therapy is, and that somebody's not weak if they come forward. We work to destigmatize it as much as we can through throughout the whole process,” says Laidlaw. The staff at OpSam go out of their way to “tailor it to your needs. It's not a cookie cutter approach.” He says they See OpSam on 9
non-poor. It also showed that 2.4 million or 8.9% said they were usually not poor, while 6.8 million or 24.9% said they were always non-poor.
SWS defined newly non-poor as those who were poor one to four years ago, while those usually not poor were poor five or more years ago. The always non-poor is defined as
those who never experienced being poor. On the edge The percentage of borderline families decreased by six points from 33% in June, while the not poor families slightly increased to 25% from 22% in June. Those in the borderline in Metro Manila and Visayas also rose to 29% and 32%, respectively, from 23% and 28% in June. While the percentage of non-poor families in Balance Luzon increased to 40% from 23%, the figures nosedived for the rest of the country. The self-rated non-poor families in Metro Manila fell to 33% from 42%. Self-rated non-poor families in the Visayas, meanwhile, also went down to 8% from 15% in June. In Mindanao, non-poor families only reached 4% from 13% in June. In estimating the number of selfrated poor families, SWS said the percentage of respondent households rating themselves as poor was applied to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) medium-population projections for 2023. The third quarter 2023 SWS poll was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults aged 18 years old and above nationwide, with 300 each in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon (or Luzon outside Metro Manila), the Visayas, and Mindanao. See SWS on 10
Filipino Press Thanksgiving Extravaganza features Art Exhibit, Fashion Show, Dinner Concert and More, Nov. 18
Jean Amour Pioso Launches Couture Collection and Art Exhibits She is a Social Worker, US Navy Military Ombudsman, Enterpreneur, Painter & Designer SAN DIEGO, CA -- Jean Pioso lives in San Diego where her small family resides. Her husband, a French Italian US Navy, is currently deployed, and her only son resides in San Francisco and is currently in his 2nd year of college. She considers herself a very busy woman. Aside from being a designer and painter, she is also a military Ombudsman for the US Navy, and a social worker. She is also an entrepreneur and manager of her son’s book series: LANDON The Superhero of the Worlds, A Race to Save the Human Race, and Dracus. Jean keeps herself busy and her friends frequently commenting she is very creative & passionate about love and that’s why her website is called Jean Amour Couture as her work always comes first with pure love. Amour means Love in French. Aside from painting, she also enjoys cooking, baking, taking lots of pictures and making videos, doing yoga, hiking and making healthy candles in her free time. When Jean is asked if, when, and how she learned to paint and make designs, she says that she was inspired one day when she saw a beautiful painting on a bottle of wine. She adds that she ended up buying the wine because of the drawings on the bottle not because of the wine. After buying the wine she went to Michael's
and bought some oil paint, brushes and canvas. She mentioned that she liked to draw when she was growing up in her notebooks while in grade school and high school. She remembered that her teachers loved her artwork and creativity in every project she did back then. The only experience she recalls is she never went to an art school and essentially taught herself how to paint. Some of her paintings are in a large gallery in Irvine, CA. She has a website where she also sells some of her paintings. All products from her website are products that
she designed herself. Please check it out at www.jeanamourcouture. com. Jean only paints if she has free time like after dinner before she goes to bed, and she’s been doing that for years. Ever since she started painting, she was inspired to paint from nature and people. Like last year she painted a flower called hibiscus or gumamela in Tagalog. She has several canvases of a beautiful lady wearing this flower on her right ear. This year, See Filipino press on
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