Commission on Higher Education Chairperson Prospero De Vera III underscored the importance of mental health awareness to prevent suicide among students.

To address this problem, De Vera said CHED has partnered with Unilab Foundation for the training of trainers program for suicide prevention and awareness in higher education institutions.

"The importance of this partnership does not need to be overemphasized. The problem of the well-being of our students, including issues of suicide prevention and mental health awareness, of course, has been there for some time," De Vera said in his speech.

De Vera said that mental health problems among students has gotten worse over the past couple of years during the pandemic.

"It has really gotten worse during the time of Covid because of the restrictions that were imposed on everyone," he said.

"And we've had a lot of problems, mental health problems, and many of them not reported. But we know that it's there," he added.

De Veda also said that all universities are looking for all the possible ways by which they could respond.

"The challenge, of course, is that when you respond, addressing mental health concerns is a very specialized field," he said.

"Not everyone can become a good person to talk to mental health. Because the major reaction of many people is don't you just let the faculty members talk to the students more? That doesn't work," the CHED chair added.

De Vera guidance counselors should be trained properly to avoid mistakes.

"In fact, in UP, when I was still a faculty member, when that was discussed, I objected very aggressively. Because I said, if you are not properly trained, and you start acting as if you can be a guidance counselor, you can actually make mistakes. And I said, I am not ready to take on that role because the consequences is really bad," said De Vera, a former UP professor.

"It shouldn't be an odd responsibility to the faculty members. It eally needs to be specialized. And that is the reason why we welcome the help from Unilab Foundation," he added.

De Vera thanked Unilab for partnering with CHED.

"Thank you for your commitment to addressing this concern. And our collaboration sends a signal to our universities, both public and private, that the Commission takes this issue seriously," he said.

"It also sends a signal to our students that we care about your mental health, that we will do everything within the capacity of the Commission to help," the CHED chair added.

De Vera also encouraged students to speak up and talk about their problems.

"What we ask from our schools, what we ask from our students, is an openness. An openness to treat mental health awareness and suicide prevention as not aberrations, but these are concerns that must be addressed and will be addressed by our university," he said.