“There is no psychiatrist here in Kalinga”: Province eyes psychiatrist hire, trains health workers for suicide prevention

TABUK CITY, Kalinga — For someone battling a mental health crisis, getting help can be a matter of knowing who to turn to—and in Kalinga, that help may not always include a psychiatrist.

That gap is prompting the provincial government to take a two-track approach: bring a psychiatrist closer to Kalinga residents while equipping frontline health workers with the skills to respond when someone is already in crisis.

Provincial Health Officer I Dr. Marilyn Duyan, in an interview with Guru Press Cordillera on October 7, 2026,  said the province is already working on the process of hiring a psychiatrist, even considering a part-time or visiting arrangement to make specialized care more accessible.

“There is no psychiatrist here in Kalinga. That's why we have these trainings so that even without them, at least we know what we should do,” Duyan said.

The statement captures one of the province’s most difficult challenges in mental health care: the need is present, but specialized help remains limited.

While the province works to fill that gap, health workers are being trained through a Suicide First Aid Training of Trainers to recognize warning signs, assess suicide risks, provide immediate support and connect people in crisis to appropriate services.

For Duyan, the training is not simply another professional development activity. It is preparation for the moment when a health worker may be the first—and perhaps only—person available to someone who is struggling.

“And that is also why this training is being conducted—so that you yourselves will know, so that we will not be left wondering and saying, ‘There is nothing we can do about that.’ Now, this is an opportunity,” she said.

When help is needed immediately

Frontline health workers regularly serve communities where specialized mental health services may not be immediately available.

Duyan said many workers still need formal training in recognizing warning signs, conducting suicide risk assessments and providing first-aid interventions.

The training seeks to change that by giving health workers practical skills they can use when faced with people experiencing emotional distress, mental health crises or suicidal thoughts.

The goal is early recognition, immediate support and timely referral—not allowing a person in crisis to fall through the cracks simply because a specialist is not immediately available.

“Strengthening the capacity of those frontline workers would lead to reduced suicide risk and improve community mental health outcomes,” Duyan said.

A psychiatrist the province can turn to

Still, Duyan stressed that training frontline workers cannot replace the need for specialized psychiatric care.

The provincial government is therefore pursuing the hiring of a psychiatrist, with the possibility of engaging one on a part-time or visiting basis.

“The province is in the process of hiring. We are looking forward to being able to hire a psychiatrist, even as a part-time or visiting [psychiatrist]—any way that we can have a psychiatrist so that we can be more confident in handling these cases,” she said.

For health workers, having a psychiatrist within reach would mean having someone to consult when a case goes beyond what they can safely manage.

“And when there are cases that we cannot address, we have someone on our back who can answer properly,” Duyan said.

That professional support could strengthen the province’s referral system and help ensure that people requiring specialized psychiatric assessment and treatment are connected to the appropriate care.

“We should not be left wondering”

Until that specialist becomes available, the province is placing greater emphasis on what can be done at the community level.

Duyan encouraged health workers to see the training as an opportunity to become more confident in responding to people who may be silently struggling.

“Even with the limited resources that we have, we should keep in mind that we will be capacitated through this training. This will be of great help to us as health workers on the ground,” she said.

For Kalinga, the effort is ultimately about building a chain of help—from the first person who notices that something is wrong, to the health worker who knows how to respond, and eventually to the specialist who can provide the care that a person may desperately need.

The province may still be without a psychiatrist today.

But through the planned hiring and the training of its frontline workers, Kalinga is working toward a mental health system where “there is nothing we can do” is no longer the answer to someone asking for help.

This angle makes the human consequence of the psychiatrist shortage the center of the story, while the training and planned hiring become the government’s response.