Sisa Media Awards 2014: Affairs of the mind

The mass media has a crucial role in educating the public about mental health issues. The Philippine Psychiatric Association Inc. (PPA) is on the lookout for men and women who have valuable contributions in shedding light about mental health through the Sisa Media Awards.

Dr. Antonio Sison, the current secretary of PPA, provided me the background history of the Sisa Media Awards. The Sisa Media Awards was inspired by Dr. Jose Rizal’s tragic character in his first novel Noli Me Tangere — Sisa.

Sisa was depicted as a poor indio, married to an abusive husband but blessed with two loving sons Basilio and Crispin. One night, her sons, who were also sacristans, did not return home for dinner. She waited for them and helplessly searched the town looking for them. Her pitiful calls for her sons echoed through the dark, empty cobblestone streets until she lost touch with reality. Sisa became crazy. She talked incoherently and avoided social contact preferring the solitary life. This was a depiction of how a normal person may lose touch with reality after an overwhelming loss of loved ones and become psychotic.

Sison added that sometime in April 2008, PPA organized the Healthy Mind Summit that highlighted the integral impact of media on mental health. The summit had a media track, which highlighted the essential role of media for accurate information dissemination regarding mental health issues. The need of PPA to partner with media was quite apparent if it would synergistically strive for a better understanding of mental health among Filipinos. Sison said that plan of partnering with media was the seed that led into acknowledging the accomplishments of media in programs that discuss the different dimensions of mental health.

The first PPA Sisa Media Awards was conceptualized and organized by Sison and Dr. Felicitas Soriano with the vision to establish a harmonious relationship between the PPA and the media, and through their concerted efforts, they will promote education of mental illness in the Philippines.  Its mission is to bestow the highest honor to the country’s best media products in radio, print, television, cinema and advertising that foster mental health and promote education on mental illness in the Philippines through balanced, informative, competent, professional and compassionate use of mass media techniques.

In January 2010, the Sisa Media Awards finally crystallized into reality during the PPA Annual Convention  with the launching of the first ever Media Awards given by a medical society in the Philippines. The Media Awards focused on recognizing television episodes that highlighted the issues of mental health and mental illness. The outstanding features recognized were the following: Angel Locsin in a Maalaala Mo Kaya episode “Blusa,” Outstanding Featured Female Character/s in a Drama Program; Gerald Anderson  in a Maalaala Mo Kaya episode “Lubid,” Outstanding Featured Male Character/s in a Drama Program; ABS-CBN’s Salamat Dok and GMA-7’s 24 Oras, Reporter’s Notebook and Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho, Outstanding News Programs; NBN’s Damayan, GMA-7’s Imbestigador and Wish Ko Lang and QTV’s Reunions, Outstanding Public Service Program; and GMA, Most Outstanding Media Partner/Advocate.

In the interim, the Media Awards went on hiatus, until four years later. Sison mentioned that the relaunch of the Media Awards has expanded (from television initially) to now include categories for television commercials and mainstream film.

The Sisa Media Awards will be showcased in an international arena for the first time at the 2014 Asian Federation of Psychiatry and Mental Health (AFPMH) convention, which will be held at the Radisson Blu Hotel Cebu on Nov. 13. The awards night will be attended by the AFPMH officers and delegates of the different ASEAN countries. The last AFPMH convention had an attendance of over 350 delegates. It is hoped that the Media Awards will inspire other ASEAN countries to organize their own media awards.

PPA is probably the first medical society to recognize the role of media in promoting good mental health in the country and in the Asian region.

Congratulations to the Philippine Psychiatric Association on its initiative in recognizing and partnering with media.

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