‘Into the Light’ is a public-private partnership launched in 2013 to establish the Philippines’ first integrated health information system for mental health conditions (PHIS-MH). The partnership was developed to help strengthen case reporting and monitoring of patients across health institutions and to generate more consistent and reliable information to better understand and address issues relevant to mental health.

During the first year of the Program, approximately 2,500 data entries were recorded in the system across 14 government and private hospitals and health care facilities and institutions nationwide, with 42% of patients diagnosed as living with schizophrenia, 15% with bipolar disorder and 6% with a history of substance abuse. For the first time, data showing that many patients were of working age and in their most productive years, but that only 22% were covered by PhilHealth (either as members or dependents), suggesting that many patients face a cycle of poverty resulting to poor access to treatment and care and lost employment.

PHIS-MH was developed by the Institute of Clinical Epidemiology of the University of the Philippines Manila (“UPM”) and the National Institutes of Health - UPM, together with the Schizophrenia Study Group, National Institutes of Health and the Technical Working Group, in partnership with the Department of Health (“DOH”), and in collaboration with the Philippine Psychiatric Association.  The work was funded by Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary in the Philippines, Johnson & Johnson (Philippines) Inc.  The partners are currently working with the DOH to further integrate the system as part of the DOH’s eHealth strategy.