SBN 2598, AN ACT STRENGTHENING MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES OF STATE UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES
Mr. President, my dear colleagues:
As Chairperson of the Committee on Higher, Technical and Vocational Education, I rise to sponsor Senate Bill No. 2598 under Committee Report No. 233, entitled “An Act Strengthening the Mental Health Services of State Universities and Colleges, Appropriating Funds Therefor and for Other Purposes”, in substitution of bills filed by Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Ramon Bong Revilla, Jr., Christopher Bong Go, Manuel “Lito” Lapid, taking into consideration House Bill No. 6416.
The Philippine Mental Health Association has long raised the alarm over the “rising epidemic of mental health crisis” in the country.
Largely it is a silent epidemic, due in part to what has been described as the romanticization of Filipino resiliency to overcome mental health crises on their own.
A poor understanding of mental health issues evades their detection, leading families who are supposed to act as comforters of the afflicted to become their castigators instead.
Compounding the stigma this illness draws is the lack of mental health professionals, the ratio of 4 psychiatrists per 1 million being the most glaring.
In most schools, which should serve as the first tripwire in detecting mental health issues among a most vulnerable age group, positions for professional guidance counselors remain unfilled for decades.
In short, the nation suffers from a lack of mental health infrastructure.
So that when COVID-19 struck, it simultaneously unleashed the epidemic of mental health crisis, marooning millions of Filipinos in their quarantined homes without care.
But COVID merely spiked a crisis that was already surging upward.
In 2018, the DOH already estimated that 15.4 million Filipinos were suffering from depression and 1 million from schizophrenia.
Suicide rates were pegged at 3.2 per 100,000.
Paramount in the cries for help of experts is their appeal to the government to institute suicide intervention, prevention, and response strategies that target the youth.
This is so because mental disorders usually begin in adolescence and thus interventions must begin there.
This bill seeks to promote mental health in institutions where our youth congregate—in state universities and colleges.
This bill requires all SUCs to establish a Mental Health Office that shall spearhead mental health programs and projects on the campus.
So, this office can be properly staffed, this bill empowers SUCs to engage the services of mental health professionals under various work arrangements.
Among the programs, this bill mandates the setting up of a 24-hour campus hotline number attended by trained guidance counselors.
But if such professionals are not available, mental health services can be rendered by holders of Psychology and other related degrees, provided that within three years they shall secure the licenses and certificates as mental health professionals.
Mr. President, for the sake of the mental wellness of many of our troubled youth who are in desperate need of professional help, I urge the immediate passage of this bill.