Jean Bhea Valencia

ASSIGNMENT #3
If you were given a chance to make a law, what would it be?
If I were given a chance to make a law it probably about the mental health of people I
will call it "The Mental Health Leave and Awareness Act for Students" a law that would
allow students to take mental health leave from school for a specified number of days and also
promote a program that provides education and awareness to parents about mental health as a
disorder that requires treatment, not just a passing phase or illusion.
The reason why I want to create a law about mental health is that as I’m growing up I
realized that most of the Filipino especially the elders are not aware about this topic which is
hindi pa ganoon kalawak yung pang unawa nila sa issue na ito. Most of them when someone says
they are dealing with anxiety, depression and social anxiety usually the response they get to hear
was “just pray to god” Don't get me wrong; we acknowledge that God is with us through good
times and bad. But some people fail to recognize the importance of having a safe place to talk for
those who are struggling with mental health issues. The word "just" in the statement causes a
problem because there are other methods you can use in addition to prayer to deal with mental
health difficulties. Usually most of the Filipino parents they will only response to you “ang hina
mo naman” “ako nga” “bakit ka pa na d-depressed eh ang swerte mo nga sa buhay” people
need to understand that people can be depressed without any traumatic reasons or experienced.
Even though Filipinos are known for always smiling, they also tend to forget that we are still
only human and experience sadness. These are the reasons why so many young people are
reluctant to express their emotions because most of the time, invalidate their feelings. Isn’t it
stressing and depressing that your own family is the reason why you have mental issues.

This law will educate families about mental health and mental disorders to eliminate
stigma and discrimination. They need to be involved in and make contributions to the creation of
mental health policy. Additionally, in order to prevent the law from being abused or being used
as a justification, it will be the parents who contact the school to let them know that their child is
currently dealing with a mental health issue. That’s why I want to create this law where children
and teenagers are allowed to have mental health leave for days. I believe that students deserve to
have mental health leave for days knowing that the pressure from school can be exhausting
sometimes. I want the law to be the voice for those people whose suffering mental health to
encourage them that feeling depress is okay that it’s okay to not be okay. I want the Filipino
people to view this law differently, obligating the government to give them more attention and
implement the Philippine mental health act.