The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) inked on Tuesday a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with UNILAB Foundation Inc. to train guidance counselors, health staff and student leaders in raising awareness and helping prevent suicides in higher education institutions in the Philippines.

“Addressing mental health concerns requires, number one, a very full grasp of the issue, training and of course that we need. Kailangan talaga specialized `yan [It really needs to be specialized],” CHED Chairman J. Prospero E. De Vera III said at the signing in Quezon City.

Recalling his teaching years at the University of the Philippines, De Vera said he refused to take on an assignment that tasked professors to also act as guidance counselors to their students.

“I objected very aggressively,” he said. “If you are not properly trained, and you start acting as if you can be a guidance counselor, you can actually make a mistake… I am not ready to take that role because the consequences will be bad.”

The chairman also highlighted the “dramatic” change of students’ disposition over time, seeing possible links to the pervasive influence of the internet and the growing exposure of students to online information.

“The world view has also changed. Their perception of problems have changed. Their capacity to respond [has changed]. We have created or we have a generation of students who are impatient, who want things to move very fast, who want results, who get agitated with very simple things. Who are bombarded by so many things online, including fake news and all these other things,” the CHED chair added.

For her part, Dr. Sheila Marie G. Hocson, technical Adviser of UNILAB Foundation, citing data from the Department of Education, said 404 students died by suicide from 2021 to 2022 while a total 2,147 suicide attempts were recorded in the same period.

To address the problem, the UNILAB Foundation has created a RACE Against Suicide Toolkit to train guidance facilitators and assist guidance counselors in schools in preventing suicide.

The said toolkit was authored by Hocson and Dr. Kenneth Ross Javate, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and consultant at UNILAB Foundation, Inc.

The program will train all school personnel including guidance counselors, teachers, health staff, administrators and other professionals to prevent suicide within the community. The training will last for two days, with two modules and four lectures including assessments and video demonstrations.

The RACE Against Suicide Toolkit was originally launched by UNILAB Foundation in early 2023. The Foundation continuously collaborates with government and non-government organizations to raise awareness on suicide prevention in the Philippines.