Filipino psychiatric nurse Sharlon Francisco intends to push for community-based mental health facilities in his home country – a model of care he was introduced to in Singapore – so that patients are not separated from society.

Credit: Temasek Foundation 

When we see people talking to themselves on the street or behaving oddly, our first reaction is often to steer clear of them. This was the same for psychiatric nurse Sharlon Francisco some 15 years ago.

“If you asked me then if I wanted to be a nurse, the answer would be no, let alone a psychiatric nurse. In fact, I used to avoid people with mental health conditions,” admitted the 41-year-old.

But these days, he is surrounded by them – helping mental health patients manage their conditions and transition back to the community, or just offering them a listening ear.

Once an agricultural trader who helped rice farmers sell their crops on the market, he had a change of heart towards the nursing profession when he was 25 years old. That year, his father, who was working in Japan, was rushed back to the Philippines with a spinal injury.

While his father was warded in the hospital, he saw the hard work that went into caring for the sick. Just three days later, he told his mother that he wanted to take up nursing.

Despite his initial reservations, he realised his best test scores came from his mental health modules, and that he communicated well with mental health patients.

To keep pace with the evolving care needs of patients, including providing more specialised care for mental health patients, the health authorities in the Philippines partnered with Temasek Foundation and Nanyang Polytechnic International to develop a nursing programme.

In 2018, Mr Francisco was in Singapore to attend the programme, which covered critical areas of care such as gerontology, oncology, orthopaedic and mental health nursing.

While he learnt many things on the programme, a visit to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) stood out – in particular, how technology improved patient care.

For instance, the nurses at IMH use a special cabinet to dispense medicine, which is able to match the medication to the patient and track when they are given. This safeguards against human error.

It was one of the initiatives that he shared with his superiors when he returned to the Philippines, with the aim of adapting it to mental health institutes there.

That is still a work-in-progress, but other initiatives have been implemented at his hospital. Among them is forming a care response team, comprising of nurses equipped with self-defence skills. They help to attend to aggressive patients. He hopes eventually to train all staff at his hospital.

His ultimate goal is to develop more community care, which is common in Singapore but relatively unheard of in the Philippines.

“I hope that there will be a mental health centre in every neighbourhood. Right now, every patient is brought to our hospital. In some cases, they can actually be managed within the community,” he said.  

“That way, their integration back into society will be easier, and their family can also play a bigger role in their treatment.”