13 REASONS WHY NOT

I am a pediatric resident at a private tertiary hospital in a third world country, and over the years of my training we noted an alarming increase in the incidence and prevalence of suicide ideation, attempts, and actual suicides amongst our adolescent patients.

My research, entitled Trends in Suicide Ideation and Suicide Attempts among Filipino Adolescent Emergency Room Consults in a Tertiary Hospital from 2016-2018, looked into this trend and the results show an unaddressed epidemic among our youth.

The results of this research have been accepted to several international conferences where I have the honor of presenting these findings and collaborating with like-minded professionals in bringing awareness to this issue. These conferences include:

*28th World Congress on Clinical Pediatrics and Perinatology to be held on September 16-17, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan
*31st Annual Conference on Psychiatry and Mental Health to be held on October 24-25 2019 in Helsinki, Finland
* World Congress on Pediatrics & Neonatology, on March 02-03, 2020 to be held in Rome, Italy
*21st Annual World Congress on Pediatrics to be held on March 27-28 2019 in Barcelona, Spain

However, attending these conferences cost A LOT. An estimated US$2000-2500$ per conference to cover Registration/ Visa/ Airfare/ Board&Lodging which the meager salary I receive from residency ($300 a month) will not be able to cover. I have been a financial aid scholar my entire academic life, and my family does not have the means to support me.

Awareness is the first step in finding solutions. Help me get the message out. Our youth need our help.