The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) has been urged to form a special program and online consultation to promote enhanced mental health care support among students, teachers, and faculty members.

This comes after OFW Partylist Representative Marissa Magsino and Marikina Representative Stella Quimbo floated the proposal on Thursday’s budget deliberations of CHEd amid the alarming rate of Filipinos having mental health crises.

Magsino called on CHEd to implement a curriculum designed to promote the interest and engagement of students in psychiatry in an effort to increase services concerning mental issues.

“Psychiatrists are very expensive. [It ranges from] P3,000 to P5,000 per session and ordinary people can’t afford it,” said Magsino.

She also saw the need to have a psychiatrist in universities and school clinics “to address the issue of mental health among college and high school students.”

Meantime, CHEd chairperson Prospero de Vera responded that school guidance and counselling services could help address mental health concerns among students but lamented that there is a discrepancy in counselor-to-student ratios.

“We have a problem with the supply guidance councilors,” De Vera said.

However, the CHEd chief said that there is an ongoing collaboration between agency and the Unilab Foundation to promote mental health awareness and prevent suicide among students in higher education institutions.

He added that the agency also partnered with Miriam College to train guidance councilors in the university.

“In 2025, in the short-term capacity building program, mental health is one of the priorities we have identified for intervention programs,” De Vera said.

Quimbo, on the other hand, urged De Vera to establish an online consultation that would offer free basic psychiatric consultation and counseling services for students, educators, and faculty members.

“I have done it in Marikina. Meaning to say, it can be done also in other places and it is not expensive, it’s very cost-effective. I’m telling you it’s very feasible especially if PhilHealth is your partner,” Quimbo said “It’s a very possible solution and all the young people will be open [to such] because they are used to virtual consultations.”

The Philippine Statistics Authority earlier reported that suicide rates increased by 25.7 percent in 2020, making it the 27th leading cause of death in the Philippines.