Jem Curtny Narboneta, a BS psychology student, participates in the poster-making contest during Psychology Week celebration. Photo courtesy of Jem Curtny Narboneta.

“The biological aspect includes medicines and genetics,” Del Valle said. “But psychosocial factors—the social determinants of health—also affect us. If we improve education, if people have jobs, and communities can support them, these all contribute to mental health.”

Trigger warning: Mentions of suicide

By Kasheena Camacho Bulatlat.com

MANILA —  For Filipinos experiencing mental health crises, long waiting periods for free mental health consultations continue to hinder their access to care, forcing some of them to seek costly private treatment.

For March Lavela, 24, deciding to seek professional help came after months of grief, mounting family responsibilities, and worsening panic attacks. “The turning point for me was when the pressure built up so much that my body couldn’t handle it anymore,” Lavela said.

He said the panic attacks began during online thesis classes, where repeated confrontations with a professor became overwhelming. The anxiety persisted even outside the classroom, with merely hearing the professor’s name triggering panic.

“I knew it was time to ask for help when I started thinking about death and killing myself,” he said. “…[R]ealizing my mind was going to that dark place made me see that I couldn’t fight this on my own anymore.”

Unable to afford private psychiatric consultations, Lavela sought free mental health services. He booked consultations with both the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) and the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH). The available schedules, however, were months away.

“I decided to just walk in at NCMH because I knew I couldn’t wait for a far-off online appointment date,” he said. “I felt like if I waited that long, I might already be gone.”

At the NCMH, he disclosed to hospital personnel that he had been experiencing suicidal thoughts. “They assisted me through the whole process once I walked into the hospital,” he said.

Lavela’s experience mirrors a broader challenge confronting the country’s mental healthcare system.

Jem Curtny B. Narboneta, 21, also agonized over the waiting period to access care.

Narboneta, a psychology student, said she initially spent around P11,000 ($181) on several online psychological consultation platforms in search of answers.

She also contacted around 15 to 20 emergency hotlines she found online but said none responded.

Her mother later accompanied her to NCMH for free consultation. Instead of receiving immediate care, they were advised to secure an online appointment. Narboneta said the earliest available schedule was nearly a year away.

“Obviously I couldn’t wait that long because I’d be long gone if I were to wait a year,” she said.

Unable to wait, she then sought consultation with a private psychiatric facility despite the additional cost.

“It greatly affected my well-being because I needed mental health consultation that time,” she said. “To find out I had to wait a year made me think of all the people who finally mustered the courage to seek help only to discover mental health services weren’t as accessible as they thought.”

Lavela and Narboneta are among the thousands of Filipinos seeking professional mental health services in the past years.

In an online interview with Bulatlat , Dr. Teresa Rosalie D. del Valle, a medical specialist IV at the NCMH, said that consultations have increased significantly in recent years.

“The pandemic heightened public awareness of mental health,” Del Valle said.

The increase in demand, however, has outpaced the country’s available mental health workforce, according to both Del Valle and international data.

According to the World Health Organization’s Mental Health Atlas 2024 , the Philippines has only 3.9 mental health workers for every 100,000 population, including 0.2 psychiatrists, 0.3 psychologists, 0.7 mental health nurses, 1.1 social workers, and 1.6 other mental health workers per 100,000 population.

The report also recorded one specialized mental hospital, 22 psychiatric units in general hospitals, and 1,362 community-based outpatient mental health facilities nationwide.

Del Valle said the current number of psychiatrists remains insufficient to keep up with the growing number of patients seeking care.

“At present, we have around 600 to 700 [psychiatrists], so that cannot meet the increasing number of …