The government must conduct an in-depth assessment and comprehensive study on the state of mental health among students in the wake of a reported rise in suicide cases among the youth during the pandemic.

Deputy Speaker Camille Villar filed House Resolution No. 900 to determine the extent of the mental health crisis among the youth and pave the way for targeted interventions.

“There is a need to conduct an in-depth assessment of and comprehensive study by relevant government agencies – such as the Department of Health, Department of Education (DepEd) and the Philippine Statistics Authority – on the present state of mental health of the country’s education sector in particular, and the overall population in general, to address immediate needs in a bid to establish more mental health units in schools, hospitals, or rural health units, among other measures,” the Las Piñas lawmaker said in a statement on Tuesday.

“There is also an urgent need to have a proactive effort to promote their mental health and well-being, and prevent mental health disorders and improve the overall mental health access and therapist services in schools and communities to address the apparent mental health crisis in the education sector,” she added.

Villar cited findings by the DepEd which showed that more than 400 student suicides happened in the 2021-2022 academic year.

She said of the country’s 28 million young learners in public schools, a total of 775,962 sought the assistance of guidance counselors during the period, with bullying cases comprising about 8,000 of those numbers.

Meanwhile, two surveys conducted by the World Health Organization in 2015 and 2019 among teenage students showed an upward trend in suicidal thoughts among learners even before the pandemic.

In the 2015 Global School-based Student Health Survey among Filipino children aged 13-17 or those typically on Grade 7 to Grade 10, about 11.6 percent of the respondents said they “seriously considered” attempting suicide during the 12 months before the survey, while 16.2 percent attempted suicide one or more times in that period.

On the other hand, a 2019 study showed that 23.1 percent of respondents have “seriously considered” attempting suicide while a slightly higher percentage of surveyed students (24.3 percent) attempted suicide “one or more times” during the 12 months before the survey.

The percentage of students who said that they “did not have any close friends” also grew to 5.9 percent in 2019 from 4.3 percent in 2015.

A separate research conducted by the University of the Philippines Population Institute indicated that close to 1.5 million young Filipinos tried taking their lives in 2021, compared with 574,000 young people who tried in a 2013 study.

Overall, 3.3 percent of the population or some 3.3 million Filipinos live with depression and the suicide mortality rate is 3.2 per 100,000 population.

“The collective health of citizens greatly affects the success of their overall socio-economic development, as well as their access to education and other basic services,” Villar said.

“Thus, we must look into the status of the seeming mental health crisis afflicting the education sector in order to institutionalize targeted interventions, raise mental health awareness and determine the mental health crisis afflicting students.” (PNA)