Across the globe, suicide is one of the causes of death among which can occur across the board. In the Philippines, it is ranked as the third leading cause of death among young people, beating cardiovascular, neurological disease, and cancer. These factors deliver high-risk behavior among individuals suffering from mental health illness, and the majority consume drugs and drink excessive alcohol. According to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority and the World Health Organization (WHO), mental health concerns include: • An increase in intentional self-harm by about 26% • Deaths due to intentional self-harm recorded a 25.7% increase from the previous year, making it the 27th leading cause of death in 2020 from rank 31 in 2019 • From 2,808 registered deaths due to intentional self-harm in 2019, this spiked to 3,529 in 2020 • Third leading cause of death among young people in the Philippines • The reported most vulnerable are adolescents and young adults Training Module on the Right to Mental Health for Local Health Leaders Mental health represents an estimated 2.65% of the health budget. However, most of the funds go to mental hospitals and there is no specific mental health line in the health budget. Mental health care is mostly paid for out-of-pocket by service users. Many Filipinos seek care for mental health from private providers or traditional resources. • Among Filipino children aged 5 to 15, 10% to 15% are affected by mental health problems • 16.8% of Filipino students aged 13 to 17 have attempted suicide at least once within a year before the 2015 Global School-based Student Health survey • There are only five government hospitals with psychiatric facilities for children, 84 general hospitals with psychiatric units, 46 outpatient facilities, and only 11 are designated for children and adolescents Mental Health Governance and Policies There is significant progress achieved in the national policies for mental health because of the growing political support for the last decades. National policies for mental health in the Philippines lay a strong groundwork for increasing access to mental health care services across the country. Following the policy, legislation that demands integrating mental health services into primary health care and decentralizing services to local government units would offer opportunity for the expansion of community-level mental health programs. The exact model of how community care will be offered still needs to be defined. 4