CHEd chair Prospero de Vera III
MANILA, Philippines — Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) chair Prospero de Vera III emphasized on Tuesday that mental health problems among college students need specialized approaches from trained personnel to be effectively addressed.
De Vera made the pronouncement during the signing of a memorandum of understanding between CHEd and Unilab Foundation Inc. for a training program for suicide prevention and awareness in higher education institutions.
READ: Mental health crisis: 404 student suicides in 2021-22
“Universities all over the country are grappling with this problem. I know that because I have been a professor at UP for most of my life and also I chaired the board of regents of the University of the Philippines, and we’ve had a lot of mental health problems of students, many of them not reported but we know that it was there,” he said in his speech.
“The challenge of course [is] when you respond; addressing mental health concerns is a specialized field. Not everyone can become a good person to talk about mental health,” he added.
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According to de Vera, the “knee-jerk” reaction of just letting faculty members handle mental health issues among students would not be effective as it is prone to mistakes.
Must be properly trained
“If you are not properly trained and you start acting as if you can be a guidance counselor, you can actually make mistakes,” he said.
“Addressing mental health requires number one, a very good grasp of the issue, training, and of course, tools that you need to do it,” he added.
Meanwhile, Dr. Sheila Marie Hocson from the Unilab Foundation reported that there had been a rise in the suicide rate in the country last 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, technology, and changing family and school landscapes.
She said that there were 404 recorded cases of completed suicide and 2,147 recorded cases of attempted suicide among youths.
Meanwhile, 775,962 out of a total of 28 million students also sought the assistance of guidance counselors during the period, with 8,000 cases related to bullying.
If you or someone you know needs help, the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) crisis hotlines can be reached at 1553 (Luzon-wide landline toll free), 0917-899-USAP (8727), 0966-351-4518, and 0908-639-2672.