10/10/2025
24 hours ago, a man wandered into the SBU grounds: ๐๐๐ก ๐๐ข๐ก ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐ข๐ก ๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐ ๐ . Behind every incident like this is a story of someone who needed help long before he was seen.
๐๐ฉ ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ซ๐๐๐ฌ, ๐๐จ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ฆ
More than one in ten Filipinos may need mental health support. However, in a population of over 114 million, there are only 4.13 mental hospital beds for every 100,000 people, and psychiatric inpatients stay for an average of 209 days in mental hospitals. When it comes to the mental health workforce, the shortage is just as alarming: there are only 0.52 psychiatrists and 0.07 psychologists per 100,000 Filipinos.
As of 2022, the Department of Health reported only 362 access sites nationwide dispensing 30 mental health medicines, serving 124,246 users. Across the country, just 84 general hospitals have psychiatric units and 46 have outpatient mental health facilities. That translates to a mere 0.05 outpatient facilities per 100,000 population, and only four community residential facilities nationwide, or 0.02 per 100,000.
These numbers arenโt just statistics: they manifest in moments like the one that startled our campus just earlier today. When a man, clearly in distress, found his way past the trees and into school grounds. This incident wasnโt only a breach of security: it was a glimpse into how easily people with untreated mental illness slip through the cracks. With so few facilities and specialists to turn to, those struggling are often left to wander the streets, untreated and unseen. Itโs a sobering reminder that mental health care in the Philippines is not only scarce: it is inaccessible to the very people who need it most.
While the national government has recognized that mental health is no longer a โside issue,โ much work remains to be done. Under DOH Administrative Order No. 2023-0015, the Eight-Point Action Agenda (2023โ2028) Sa Healthy Pilipinas, Bawat Buhay Mahalaga explicitly includes Ginhawa ng Isip at Damdamin, placing mental and emotional well-being among its top priorities. Yet policy recognition alone is not enough. We need more accessible, community-based mental health facilities; more trained professionals in local clinics and barangays; and stronger integration of mental wellness in schools and primary care. Mental health support should not begin when someone is found climbing fences or train tracks: it should begin in classrooms, clinics, and conversations.
The school did what it had to do: evacuating students and securing the grounds. Safety will always come first. But beyond the immediate fear and protocol lies a deeper question: what happens to people like him once the danger has passed? The man who crossed through the trees and onto the tracks may never know the conversation he sparked. Yet his story, brief, unsettling, and deeply human, reflects a larger truth about who we are as a society. Until we learn to see people like him not as threats, but as symptoms of a system that has failed to care, we will continue to confuse safety with silence. Perhaps the real test of a compassionate community is not how high its fences stand, but how far its understanding reaches.
References:
Alibudbud, R. (2024). The severe shortage of mental hospital beds in the Philippines. Health Services Insights, 17, Article 11786329241230156. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10851713/
Department of Health. (2022). National Mental Health Program: Mental Health Atlas (Philippines, 2022). Department of Health, Republic of the Philippines. Retrieved from https://doh.gov.ph
Department of Health. (2023). Administrative Order No. 2023-0015: The Eight-Point Action Agenda for a Healthy Pilipinas, Bawat Buhay Mahalaga (2023โ2028). Department of Health, Republic of the Philippines. Retrieved from https://doh.gov.ph
GMA News Online. (2024, April 18). Philippinesโ mental health quotient worsens in 2024 โ study. GMA Integrated News. https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/lifestyle/healthandwellness/943137/philippines-mental-health-quotient-worsens-in-2024-study/story/
IDinsight. (2022). Improving mental health policies in the Philippines. IDinsight. https://www.idinsight.org/project/improving-mental-health-policies-in-the-philippines/
Inquirer.net. (2023, March 18). Mental health care in PH starving from lack of resources. Philippine Daily Inquirer. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1754934/mental-health-care-in-ph-starving-from-lack-of-resources
Lally, J., Tully, J., & Samaniego, R. (2020). Mental health services in the Philippines. BJPsych International, 17(2), 43โ45. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6646843/
Philippine Statistics Authority. (2023). Philippine Population Clock and Demographics 2023. Philippine Statistics Authority. Retrieved from https://psa.gov.ph
Tayag, E., & Reyes, C. (2023). Mental health situationer in the Philippines: Challenges and policy directions. Asian Journal of Public Health Research, 5(3), 101โ113. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10851713
World Health Organization. (2023). WHO Mental Health Atlas 2023: Philippines Country Profile. World Health Organization.
Retrieved from https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/mental-health-atlas-2023-country-profile-phl
Words by: Louise Ludwig
Art by: Kent Chan, Monique Bernabe
