00:00 School-Based Mental Health Program,
00:02 and we will talk with Senator Wynne Gatchalian,
00:06 the Chair of the Senate Committee on Basic Education.
00:09 Senator Wynne, good afternoon and welcome to the new Philippines.
00:14 Good afternoon, good afternoon.
00:16 First of all, Senator, please explain to us,
00:21 can you explain this Senate Bill 2200
00:26 that you are proposing regarding the School-Based Mental Health Program?
00:30 There are three purposes of this law
00:34 because we saw the problem when it comes to
00:38 providing support to the mental health of our students
00:42 as well as our teachers and teaching staff.
00:45 It is stated that within 5 years,
00:50 there were almost 1,600 students who died in our public schools.
00:58 This is not much news,
01:01 but if we look at the data, because the data is an actual report,
01:05 it is a concern to all of us.
01:08 Many lives are lost because of mental health.
01:13 There are three purposes of this.
01:15 First, the Mental Health Program of the Department of Education
01:19 should include a real program for mental health,
01:25 like detection, information campaign,
01:30 and programs, for example, hotline,
01:36 programs that can reduce or solve our mental health problems.
01:44 Second, because we lack guidance counselors,
01:48 this law will encourage many college students
01:55 to join guidance counseling and other mental health-related courses
02:02 so that we have more mental health specialists in our schools.
02:07 Third, another purpose of this law
02:14 is to help the teaching and non-teaching staff of our schools
02:24 because not only our students experience mental health issues,
02:29 but also our teaching and non-teaching staff.
02:32 Alright, Sen Wyn, good afternoon.
02:35 In your study, you mentioned the data, the 1,600 students.
02:40 In your study, what impact does the pandemic have on the mental health of our youth?
02:47 It's big. We saw in the data that the number of mental health-related calls,
02:53 those who call the hotline, increased during the pandemic 2020 and 2021.
03:00 Because the number of calls increased, the number of actual deaths also increased.
03:08 This is not only happening in our schools, but also in the elderly.
03:13 We also looked at the data of the Council on Mental Health
03:20 and it also shows that during the pandemic,
03:23 the number of calls to the mental health hotline increased and the actual deaths.
03:31 Alright. Follow up Sen Wyn, in SB 2200, who will be the ones to implement this school-based mental health program if this is passed?
03:43 We will be looking for registered guidance counselors and registered psychologists
03:51 because these two professions can help in addressing our mental health.
03:59 These two professions will expand the number of mental health specialists who can help our schools.
04:09 They are the ones we will get and bring to the care centers.
04:16 These are the centers where students can go if they have problems.
04:22 Okay. When it comes to the intervention, Senator, are you also involved in the implementation of various mental health services?
04:34 Can you give us some more details on how you will include this in the program?
04:40 The services included in the program are like information campaign, referral system, and counseling.
04:54 These are included in the program, included in the law and the services that will be offered under the law.
05:04 But I will clarify that we will not include the treatment because the treatment is more complicated.
05:13 They may need medical intervention where our hospitals will be able to provide the intervention.
05:20 Alright. Senator, the care center is also part of your proposed law in the school-based mental health program.
05:29 Can you give us some details regarding the care centers in the implementation of your bill?
05:37 These care centers are the places where students or teaching and non-teaching staff can go to ask for counseling and advice on what to do.
05:51 They also have the responsibility to have a detection program to know if there is a problem in their school.
06:03 It also depends on the situation of a place. For example, if a school is experiencing extreme stress, for example, there is a war or there is a typhoon,
06:13 most likely, the students there are experiencing stress and mental health issues.
06:19 So it depends on the situation, the purpose of the law is to build at least one in our schools.
06:31 If it depends on the situation, we can build more.
06:35 Senator Gatchalian, if this is included in the law, does it mean that the number of students and staff will be added to this mental health program?
06:47 How will this system be, Senator?
06:50 Yes. We will add more people. We call them mental health associates and mental health specialists.
07:01 These are the people who know what to do, the trained people on how to handle mental health issues.
07:11 These are trained professionals or mental health associates who are studying counseling and mental health-related courses.
07:20 That's why it is important to have more mental health practitioners in our schools. That's the most important.
07:29 We know that there is a shortage now, but the purpose of the law is to have people who can help in mental health.
07:39 Sen, it would be good to see how ready are our students to implement this measure,
07:49 considering especially the stigma, social and cultural stigma that comes with mental health issues.
07:56 It cannot be implemented immediately. This is our direction.
08:06 I admit that we need a big fund and it cannot be implemented overnight.
08:13 But what's important is that we have a direction on where to go.
08:17 Senator, please explain why mental health is something that is close to your heart.
08:24 Do you have anything to say or do you have a personal experience on why this is important for you?
08:34 I have seen on the data that mental health is also an academic issue.
08:40 If we want to increase the degree of our students, we should address the mental health issues.
08:48 In the 2018 PISA results, it is clear that the students who are bullied have lower grades compared to those who are not bullied.
08:58 Bullying is a mental health issue, both those who are bullied and those who are bullied.
09:04 Mental health is also an academic issue.
09:12 If the purpose of our law is to increase the learner performance, learner outcome,
09:18 the degree of our students, we should address the mental health situation of our students.
09:25 Yes, Senator Nguyen. Thank you for explaining that.
09:32 It is true that our education system is not just about academics.
09:37 It is really important, especially in the recent news about two students who are in the news,
09:45 who are only 15 and 16 years old, it is really worrying.
09:49 And the 1,600 data that you mentioned of students who died in the last few years here in the Philippines,
10:00 we did not talk about it because it is taboo to talk about it.
10:06 It is hard to talk about it.
10:09 So in your opinion, how can we create awareness on how to talk about this?
10:17 How can our students and our teaching personnel participate?
10:23 Because you are right, bullying and victims, sometimes bullying is also a victim.
10:28 It is important for our teaching personnel and school staff to understand mental health.
10:39 Many did not understand mental health.
10:42 They thought it was just tiredness or hunger.
10:45 Many of our, even the elderly, they do not know the symptoms or signs of mental health.
10:55 That is why the information campaign is included in this law.
11:00 That is also the starting point.
11:02 You cannot cure one thing if you do not know what happened.
11:05 So the information campaign is important.
11:09 Yes, and the acknowledgement that this mental health issue, sometimes you really have to treat it.
11:16 Not only counselling, but also medicine.
11:19 For example, if you have diabetes, you have to maintain it.
11:23 And of course, it also requires expenses.
11:27 Anyway, Senator Nguyen, in other talks, how are the budget hearings going on in your plenary?
11:35 On schedule, hopefully by next Monday, we will finish this.
11:40 Hopefully, that's the target.
11:41 If there's a stretch, maybe until Tuesday or Wednesday.
11:46 But our target is to finish this next week so before we adjourn on December 14,
11:55 the budget will be transmitted to the Office of the President.
12:01 Okay. We have a question regarding what's happening in POGO.
12:08 Should the budget be increased by law enforcement agencies to cover illegal POGO, Senator?
12:18 I think that no matter how much the budget is increased, the crime of POGO will not be removed
12:24 because POGO is the source of the crimes.
12:29 We should cut the source of the crimes we are seeing, especially human trafficking that is rampant.
12:39 This year alone, 4,700 victims were rescued from human trafficking from POGO.
12:47 It is important to cut the source. This is the source of human trafficking and scamming that we are seeing in the past few months.
13:01 All right. Send a message to our countrymen who are watching our program.
13:07 Thank you very much and thank you for our wonderful interview. Thank you very much.
13:14 Thank you very much, Senator Wynne Gatchalian, Chair of the Senate Committee on Basic Education.
Comments