Senate bill on school-based mental health program OK’d on 3rd reading

A Senate bill seeking to institutionalize the School-Based Mental Health Program has been approved on third and final reading with 22-0-0 votes.

Senate Bill 2200 or the proposed Basic Education Mental Health and Well-Being Promotion Act seeks to promote and ensure the mental health and well-being of learners in public and private basic education institutions.

The bill also covers out-of-school children in special cases that include learners with disabilities or conditions, indigenous peoples, children in conflict with the law, learners in emergency situations, and other marginalized sectors.

Under SB 2200, the Department of Education is mandated to establish and maintain so-called Care Centers in every public basic education institution and ensure their establishment and maintenance in private basic education institutions.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, principal sponsor of the bill, explained that the Care Centers will be mandated to equip learners with skills and information for prevention, identification, and proper response and referral for their own and others’ mental health needs.

Care Centers will likewise facilitate the efficient referral for appropriate intervention to, and provision of adequate aftercare support by other appropriate agencies, institutions, organizations, or professionals.

These centers will also be tasked to improve the mental health awareness and literacy of teaching and non-teaching personnel.

The bill also provides new plantilla positions of Mental Health Associates I to V, and Mental Health Specialists I to V to ensure enough personnel who will run the mental health program in schools.

SB 2200 also seeks to convert the current plantilla positions of Guidance Counselors and Psychologists in DepEd to Mental Health Specialists.

In his sponsorship speech on the bill, Gatchalian, citing data from the Department of Education, 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.

Gatchalian earlier 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 had said.

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