The American Psychological Association (APA) has conferred the 2021 Global Citizen Psychologist Citation to Filipino psychologist Dr. Maria Regina M. Hechanova-Alampay for the development community interventions for mental health and drug rehabilitation.
The Department of Science and Technology-National Research Council of the Philippines (DOST-NRCP) announced this in a Facebook post on Friday, Aug. 13.
The DOST-NRCP extended its felicitations to Dr. Maria Regina M. Hechanova-Alampay, president of the Psychological Association of the Philippines (PAP), for bagging the citation.
"Congratulations, Dr. Maria Regina M. Hechanova-Alampay, for being awarded by the American Psychological Association with the 2021 Global Citizen Psychologist Citation!,” it wrote on Facebook.
According to the APA, the 2021 Global Citizen Psychologist Citation aims to “recognize the contributions of outstanding psychologists who have used their psychology expertise outside their normal work activities to benefit their local, national or international community.”
Currently, Alampay is an active regular member of NRCP Division of Social Sciences. She is a professor at the Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU), and currently serves as chief of party of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) RenewHealth project.
“Her biggest contribution to the practice of Psychology is the development community interventions for mental health and drug rehabilitation,” the DOST-NRCP said.
It cited that Alampay spearheaded the program called “Katatagan, Kalusugan and Damayan ng Komunidad” (Resilience, Health and Care in the community). The program was adopted by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and is currently being used by local government units (LGUs).
“She also brought together a team of psychologists from all over the country to create a resilience program called Katatagan focused, non-specialized intervention that can be delivered by paraprofessionals,” the Council said.
Managed by trained volunteers, Katatagan Online is available in both synchronous and asynchronous versions.