《TAIPEI TIMES》Cabinet approves mental health budget

By Jake Chung / Staff writer, with CNA

The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a six-year, NT$5.63 billion （US$176.5 million） budget to improve mental health coverage.

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The Ministry of Health and Welfare proposal to launch a “General Mental Health Resilience Project” would run from next year to 2031.

It would involve 13 ministries and propose six main and 23 ancillary strategies, with 13 key performance indicators, Department of Mental Health Deputy Director Cheng Sheu-shin （鄭淑心） said.

The measures aim to promote general mental health, develop a network to ensure continuity in mental health care, step up measures to treat victims of rape and domestic violence, and strengthen infrastructure for digital and technological devices that can be used to treat mental health issues.

The program would seek to standardize mental health resources nationwide to bolster public mental fortitude, and enhance efforts to make such services more accessible in hopes of bringing down suicide rates across the nation, Cheng said.

Emergency medicine should include mental care, and the program would step up local community support to safeguard the rights of mental health patients and reduce, as much as possible, the negative connotations of mental health issues, Cheng said.

The program would also increase subsidies to programs to combat alcoholism an curb Internet addiction, Cheng added.

Cabinet spokesman Chen Shih-kai （陳世凱） quoted Premier Cho Jung-tai （卓榮泰） as saying during the Cabinet meeting that creating a more well-rounded and accessible support system for mental health is in line with President William Lai’s （賴清德） instructions to build a “healthy Taiwan.”

Such a focus also echoes the WHO slogan, “There can be no health without mental health,” and shows that Taiwan’s policies can follow global trends, Cho said.

Government agencies should make mental health a principal part of all policies and work together to create a cohesive whole, Cho said.

He said the policy should be continued until it becomes part of elementary education so that young people grow up knowing the need to express mental and emotional support to others.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES