The mental health state of Daet North District teachers: Basis for Intervention Initiatives

Abstract

This study investigated the state of mental health of elementary public-school teachers in Daet North District and presented intervention initiatives to improve their well-being. One hundred ninety-two teachers (192) from 14 schools in the district were chosen as the respondents of the study through Stratified Random Sampling to ensure that the whole teaching force was well-represented. The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and a researcher-made questionnaire were used to gather data on the levels of depression, anxiety, and stress, physical and health conditions, and demographics. For stress levels, 75.5% of the respondents have a normal level of stress and 0.5% claimed to be extremely severely stressed. Forty-four percent (44%) manifested a moderate level of anxiety and 7% experienced mild anxiety. Most of the respondents have a normal level of depression (44.8%) but it can be noted that teachers who declared experiencing a moderate level of depression follow at 33% and only 1% of the respondents claimed to be extremely severely depressed. The study also found that teachers have good emotional and physical health conditions. The mental health state of teachers in terms of stress, anxiety and depression were alarming. Moderate anxiety and depression can worsen if not addressed. These conditions in the teaching field of elementary teachers in Daet North District about mental health called for intervention initiatives that can support and guide them to feel informed that mental health issues are a reality and that there are ways to cope with them and improve their mental health status is possible.