Bill institutionalizing school-based mental health program sponsored in Senate plenary

A bill seeking to institutionalize school-based mental health program to ensure the well-being of all  learners in public and private basic education schools across the country has been sponsored in the Senate plenary.

Senate basic education chairman Sherwin Gatchalian sponsored Senate Bill 2200 taking into consideration Committee Report No. 66.

The senator said the program will  provide essential school-based mental health services, including screening, evaluation, assessment, and monitoring, mental health first aid, crisis response and referral system, mental health awareness and literacy, emotional, development and preventive programs, and other support services such as strengthening the learners’ family bonds.

Under the measure, Gatchalian said the Department of Education will implement complementary measures that enable other associated healthy behaviors among learners and eliminate the stigma on mental health counseling.

It will also provide mental health awareness programs and literacy and appropriate mental health-related referrals to teaching and non-teaching personnel.

A “Care Center” in every public basic education school in the country will be established and it will be equipped with functional physical facilities, located within an adequate space where confidentiality is maintained and accessible to the learners, teachers, and non-teaching personnel.

The Center will serve as an instrument to deliver school-based mental health services, including the development of a localized multi-year roadmap on the school-based Mental Health Program, improvement of the mental health awareness and literacy of the teaching and non-teaching personnel, and establishment of linkages with the school community, including parents, parent-substitutes, LGUs, and other stakeholders.

Gatchalian said the bill also prescribes the creation of new plantilla positions of mental health specialists and mental health associates in the DepEd.

All existing plantilla positions of guidance counselors and psychologists in the DepEd shall be converted to mental health specialists plantilla positions, and their corresponding salary grades will be adjusted in accordance with the salary schedule prescribed in the measure.

Gatchalian said the compensation of the existing plantilla positions of Guidance Counselors I to III and Psychologists I to III will be adjusted to Salary Grades 16, 18 and 20, as their positions are converted to Mental Health Specialists I to III.

They can be promoted to Mental Health Specialists IV and V with Salary Grades 22 and 24, respectively.

According to the senator, the creation of the new plantilla positions and competitive salaries will address the current shortage of guidance counselors in basic education institutions.

Based on DepEd-Department of Budget and Management Organization and Staffing Standards, Gatchalian said the ideal guidance counselor to students ratio is one to 500 learners.

But with 23.98 million learners, the ratio is 1 to 8,431 learners as of February 2023.

In sponsoring the bill, Gatchalian mentioned DepEd’s data which showed that in School Year 2021 to 2022, 2,147 students attempted to commit suicide, while 404 learners took their own lives.

“Every life is precious and one life lost is one too many. It is heartbreaking to know that in a single school year over 400 learners ended their lives. Each one of them had his or her own aspirations and the potential to succeed in life,” he said.

“They could have landed their dream jobs, made groundbreaking discoveries, or could have become global advocates for mental health awareness,” he added.—AOL, GMA Integrated News