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COUNTRY
PROFILE Mental health services in the Philippines
John Lally,
1,2,3
John Tully
4
and Rene Samaniego
5
National information on mental health
services in the Philippines indicates that there
are substantial gaps and inconsistencies in the
delivery of mental healthcare. The recently
enacted Mental Health Act legislation
provides a platform for the delivery of
comprehensive and integrated mental health
services. However, there remain many
challenges in the provision of accessible and
affordable mental healthcare.
The Philippines is an autonomous republic
located in the Western Pacific, with a population
of over 100 million and a large diaspora of
approximately 10 million people. It is the 12th
most densely populated country in the world.
The Philippines is an archipelago of over 7000
islands, with the majority of the population living
on the largest islands of Luzon (in which the cap-
ital Manila is located), Visayas and Mindanao.
The country stretches towards Taiwan in the
north and to Indonesia and Brunei in the
south, with the Pacific Ocean to the east, and
the South China Sea divides it from mainland
South East Asia.
Most (90%) of the population is Christian, with
80% Roman Catholic, and approximately 5% are
Muslim. Filipino is the official language, although
English (the second language) is widely spoken.
The Philippines is classified as a lower-middle-
income country (defined as a gross national
income per capita of between $1006 and $3955),
based on the 2017 per capita income statistics by
the World Bank (https://data.worldbank.org).
Economic improvements have been evident over
the past decade.
The Philippines attained full independence in
1946 after being colonised and occupied by for-
eign powers since 1545: first by Spain, then by
the US and finally by Japan during the Second
World War. This colonial history contributed to
the development of a unique Filipino culture,
which also includes ancient and contemporary
Asian influences. However, it remains a country
poorly understood in the West; it is often viewed
as an apparent anomaly in the region due to its
belated achievement of independence and its
uniqueness as a Christian-majority country in
Asia.
Mental health services
The Philippines has recently passed its first
Mental Health Act (Republic Act no. 11036).
The Act seeks to establish access to comprehensive
and integrated mental health services, while pro-
tecting the rights of people with mental disorders
and their family members (Lally et al,2019).
However, mental health remains poorly
resourced: only 3–5% of the total health budget
is spent on mental health, and 70% of this is
spent on hospital care (WHO & Department of
Health, 2006).
Accordingly, the majority of mental healthcare
is provided in hospital settings and there are
underdeveloped community mental health ser-
vices. The National Center for Mental Health
was previously estimated to account for 67% of
the available psychiatric beds nationally (Conde,
2004). More recent data indicate that there are
1.08 mental health beds in general hospitals and
4.95 beds in psychiatric hospitals per 100 000 of
the population (WHO, 2014). There are 46 out-
patient facilities (0.05/100 000 population) and 4
community residential facilities (0.02/100 000)
(WHO, 2014). There are only two tertiary care
psychiatric hospitals: the National Center for
Mental Health in Mandaluyong City, Metro
Manila (4200 beds) and the Mariveles Mental
Hospital in Bataan, Luzon (500 beds). There are
12 smaller satellite hospitals affiliated with the
National Center for Mental Health which are
located throughout the country. Overcrowding,
poorly functioning units, chronic staff shortages
and funding constraints are ongoing problems,
particularly in peripheral facilities. There are no
dedicated forensic hospitals, although forensic
beds are located at the National Center for
Mental Health.
Mental health staff
There is 1 doctor for every 80 000 Filipinos
(WHO & Department of Health, 2012); the emi-
gration of trained specialists to other countries,
particularly English-speaking countries, contri-
butes to this scarcity. This shortage is magnified
in psychiatry where, nationally, there are a little
over 500 psychiatrists in practice. The ratio of
mental health workers per population in the
Philippines is low, at 2–3 per 100 000 population
(WHO & Department of Health, 2006). This ratio
is lower than in other Western Pacific Rim coun-
tries with similar economic status, for example
Malaysia (4.9 mental health workers per 100 000
population) and Indonesia (3.1 per 100 000
population). Data indicate that there are 0.52 psy-
chiatrists (Isaac et al,2018) and 0.07 psychologists
per 100 000 inhabitants, and 0.49 mental health
1
Psychiatrist and Clinical Lecturer,
Department of Psychosis Studies,
Institute of Psychiatry,
Psychology and Neuroscience,
King’s College London, UK. Email:
john.lally@kcl.ac.uk
2
Psychiatrist and Clinical Lecturer,
Department of Psychiatry, Royal
College of Surgeons in Ireland,
Beaumont Hospital, Ireland
3
Psychiatrist and Clinical Lecturer,
Department of Psychiatry, St
Vincent’s Hospital Fairview,
Ireland
4
Psychiatrist and Clinical Lecturer,
Department of Forensic and
Neurodevelopmental Sciences,
Institute of Psychiatry,
Psychology and Neuroscience,
Kings College London, UK
5
Psychiatrist, Section of
Psychiatry, Department of
Neurosciences, Makati Medical
Center, the Philippines
Conflict of interest. None.
Keywords. Asia; psychiatry; lower-
middle income; education and
training.
First received 17 Aug 2018
Accepted 26 Nov 2018
doi:10.1192/bji.2018.34
© The Authors 2019. This is an
Open Access article, distributed
under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution licence
(http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by/4.0/), which permits
unrestricted re-use, distribution,
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is
properly cited.
BJPSYCH INTERNATIONAL page 1 of 3 2019 1
nurses per 100 000 of the population (a reduction
from 0.72 per 100 000 in 2011) (WHO, 2014).
Together, these figures equate to a severe
shortage of mental health specialists in the
Philippines. This is further illuminated when
compared with the World Health Organization
(WHO)-recommended global target of 10 psy-
chiatrists per 100 000 population. Further, the
majority of psychiatrists work in for-profit services
or private practices and are mainly based in the
major urban areas, particularly in the capital
region known as Metro Manila.
The burden of mental disorders in the
Philippines
There is little epidemiological evidence on mental
disorders in the Philippines; however, some
important data are available. For example, 14% of
a population of 1.4 million Filipinos with disabil-
ities were identified to have a mental disorder
(Philippines Statistics Authority, 2010). The
National Statistics Office identified that mental ill-
ness is the third most prevalent form of morbidity,
however the finding that only 88 cases of mental
health problems were reported for every 100 000
of the population (DOH, 2005) is likely an under-
estimate of the true extent of these issues.
The 2005 WHO World Health Survey in the
Philippines identified that, of 10 075 participants,
0.4% had a diagnosis of schizophrenia and 14.5%
had a diagnosis of depression. Of those with a
diagnosis of schizophrenia, 33.2% had received
treatment or screening in the past 2 weeks, com-
pared with 14% of those with a diagnosis of
depression. Recent data from the Philippine
Health Information System on Mental Health
identified that (from 14 public and private hospi-
tals surveyed from 2014 to 2016) 42% of the 2562
surveyed patients were treated for schizophrenia.
Between 1984 and 2005, estimates for the inci-
dence of suicide in the Philippines have increased
from 0.23 to 3.59 per 100 000 in males, and from
0.12 to 1.09 per 100 000 in females (Redaniel et al,
2011). The most recent data from 2016 identified
an overall suicide rate of 3.2/100 000, with a
higher rate in males (4.3/100 000) than females
(2.0/100 000) (WHO, 2018).
Access to treatment
Prohibitive economic conditions and the inaccess-
ibility of mental health services limit access to
mental healthcare in the Philippines. Further,
perceived or internalised stigma has been shown
to be a barrier to help-seeking behaviour in
Filipinos (Tuliao & Velasquez, 2014), just as is
the case in Western populations (Lally et al,
2013). There is a cultural drive to ‘save face’
when there is a threat to or loss of one’s social pos-
ition, and as such Filipinos may have difficulty in
admitting to mental health problems or seeking
help. There is a strong sense of family in the
Philippines and so, when problems are thought
to be socially related, Filipinos will turn to family
and peer networks before seeking medical help
(Tuliao, 2014).
There are little data on prescription rates and
the use of psychotropic medications in treating
mental disorders. The 2005 WHO Health
Survey indicated that only a third of people with
a diagnosis of schizophrenia were receiving treat-
ment or screening (although antipsychotic medi-
cation was not specified as the treatment).
There is a national Department of Health
Medication Access Program for Mental Health
that carries a central list of essential medications,
which are shown in Box 1. These medications are
available at all service levels, but funding issues
limit patient access, particularly access to newer
medications. The most commonly used antipsy-
chotics in clinical practice are chlorpromazine
and haloperidol; escitalopram and fluoxetine are
the most commonly used antidepressants.
Box 1. The Philippines Department of Health
Medication Access Program for Mental Health list of
essential psychotropic medications
(a) First-generation/typical antipsychotics →chlor-
promazine, haloperidol (oral and long-acting
injectable), fluphenazine decanoate
(b) Second-generation/atypical antipsychotics →clo-
zapine, olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone
(c) Antide pressants →fluoxetine, sertraline,
escitalopram
(d) Mood stabilisers →lithium carbonate, valproic
acid, carbamazepine, lamotrigine
(e) Anticholinergics →biperiden, diphenhydramine
(f) Benzodiazepine →clonazepam
(g) Cholinesterase inhibitor →donepezil
(h) NMDA receptor antagonist →memantine
Psychiatry training
There are currently 47 accredited medical schools
in the Philippines. Psychiatry is a recognised core
part of the medical curriculum, which is generally
4 years long. The average time allotted for the
psychiatry module is 2 weeks, which incorporates
teaching by lectures and clinical exposure. There
are 13 postgraduate psychiatry training institu-
tions, with 8 of them based in the Metro Manila
region, including 1 based at the National Center
for Mental Health. The others are generally
located at regional or tertiary hospitals. Only two
of the postgraduate training programmes offer
2-year fellowships in psychiatric subspecialties
such as child and adolescent psychiatry, consult-
ation–liaison psychiatry, community psychiatry
and addiction psychiatry.
Postgraduate residency training is generally a
3- or 4-year programme, depending on the
institution. The individual training institution is
responsible for designing the training programme,
with core competencies acquired in line with inter-
national standards. Trainees have the opportunity
to spend 3 months in neurology and 2 months in an
internal medicine department. All institutions
2BJPSYCH INTERNATIONAL page 2 of 3 2019
conduct written examinations and Objective
Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs). Upon
completion of residency training, an exit examin-
ation is performed with written and OSCE compo-
nents, following which the title Diplomate of the
Specialty Board of Philippine Psychiatry is
awarded to the candidates who qualify.
Despite these structures, psychiatry remains a
less popular specialty for medical graduates in
the Philippines, and the numbers being trained
are inadequate to meet a growing need.
Conclusions
Mental healthcare in the Philippines faces
continued challenges including underinvestment,
lack of mental health professionals and under-
developed community mental health services.
Although the recent Mental Health Act legislation
has –for the first time –provided a legal framework
for the delivery of comprehensive mental health-
care, economic restrictions preventing people
from accessing mental healthcare should be con-
sidered to enable the population to equitably access
appropriate care when required. Increased
investment is urgently needed to improve the
training and recruitment of psychiatrists, nurses,
psychologists, social workers and other multidis-
ciplinary team members, particularly as large num-
bers of skilled professionals continue to emigrate.
Acknowledgement
We thank Kathleen Sabanal for constructive comments and
insights on the sociocultural background of the Philippines.
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