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RIPPLE: BiPSU’s Intensified Mental Health and Suicide Prevention programs
from GUNIT
by Cian Napalit
Since the pandemic began, a wave of an unprecedented rise in suicide cases in the Province of Biliran has become an alarming issue. Majority of this recorded cases in data was shown to be students of the Biliran Province State University (BiPSU).
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This called for BiPSU’s intensified psychosocial and counseling services. In response, the university’s Guidance and Counseling Services Office (GCSO) led post to cater to the mental health issues of students within and outside the university.
Various programs were spearheaded by the GCSO, namely, the Stress Management & Mental Health Seminar, Peer Facilitators Training for the university’s Peer Movers Circle (PMC), Seminar intended for parents of the main stakeholders or the students, Anti-Drug Addiction and Prevention Program, and a Teenage Pregnancy & HIV/ AIDS Prevention Program.
The office also organized the Peer Movers Circle (PMC), which is composed of selected students given the responsibility of acting as moving mini-counselors for each school on both the main and Biliran campuses.
According to Mrs. Corazon Napalit, GCSO Chairperson, due to the short number of guidance counselors and psychosocial professionals in BiPSU, where at least one psychosocial counselor should be designated for every 500 students, the university ventured to promote young peer facilitators to help cater to the needs of mentally troubled students.
Meanwhile, The Pillar Publication, the official tertiary student publication of BiPSU, also held a 20-day information campaign dubbed as GUNIT, in participation of the National Suicide Prevention Month.
This campaign aimed to provide a safe space for suicidal and mentally troubled students and employees of BiPSU and open the discussion of stigmatized social issues such as various mental health disorders and suicide.
As part of the campaign, different activities were initiated, including a series of social media postings and the release of a GUNIT special issue.
