Senator Sherwin Gatchalian has filed a resolution urging the Senate to conduct a review of the country’s Mental Health Act or Republic Act No. 11036.                         Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian (Senate PRIB Photo)
Gatchalian said a Senate inquiry into the law’s implementation is necessary given the increase in the number of deaths by suicide in recent years. “Considering a looming mental health pandemic, it is crucial for the government to urgently intervene by improving and investing in mental health services across healthcare, protection, education, and welfare,” Gatchalian said in filing Senate Resolution No. 671. Gatchalian said the Covid-19 pandemic served as a wake-up call for the government to prioritize public mental health services in the country. A February 2021 policy brief from De La Salle University, he said, revealed sporadic efforts and a lack of comprehensive collaborative approach to address the problem despite the introduction of national and local mental health programs during the pandemic. Citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Gatchalian also sounded the alarm on the 74 percent increase in suicide incidents from 2019 to 2020, which then made it the 28th leading cause of death in the country. In 2019, he noted that suicides ranked as the 39th leading cause of death in the Philippines. There were 4,892 recorded cases of death due to intentional self-harm in 2020, surpassing the 2,808 deaths recorded in 2019. While the preliminary estimated number of suicides for 2022 stood at 2,865, the average number of deaths by suicide rose significantly during and after the pandemic. Gatchalian noted that from the pre-pandemic annual average of 2,752 recorded from 2017 to 2019, the annual average of deaths by suicide rose to 4,085 from 2020 to 2022. “The pandemic has, likewise, significantly impacted the mental health of one of the most vulnerable sectors—the learners,” he said. The Senate Committee on Basic Education chairman said recent figures from the Department of Education (DepEd) showed that 412 students have died by suicide for School Years 2020-2021 and 2021 and 2022. During the Senate Committee on Health and Demography conducted last May 9, 2023, Gatchalian pointed out that the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) received 3,125 calls in 2019, 700 of which were suicide related. In 2020, the calls increased to 11,000, with suicide-related calls rising to 2,800. The number of calls further rose to 14,000 in 2021, and 5,000 of which are suicide-related, which is almost seven times higher than the figure in 2019. “Notwithstanding the high demand for mental health services, they remain inaccessible due to high costs,” Gatchalian lamented. A Senate review would help identify the challenges in the delivery of mental health services, evaluating the effectiveness of existing policies, and recommending policy and legislative interventions to address an impending mental health pandemic in the Philippines, the lawmaker stressed.