Is mental health treatment reserved only for privileged people in Taiwan? The question made the news again following a violent incident in Pingtung County last month, while calls to expand coverage for counseling made headway with a forum last week held by the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA).
The problem is long-standing — people seeking psychological counseling in Taiwan either have to pay steep prices out of pocket or wait for months to receive affordable services.
A petition to have counseling services covered by the National Health Insurance (NHI) system was launched in May and gathered more than 5,000 signatures, leading to the forum that included signatories and experts.
The NHIA said the government has established 385 community mental health centers across the nation since 2015 that provide free or low-cost services to more than 20,000 people annually.
However, an expert at the forum said few people have been using the service, with some psychologists not seeing a single patient during their shifts. Some of these centers are doing well, while others appear to be understaffed and can only accept suicidal people or those with mental disorders, a participant at the forum said.
While the centers were not the main topic of discussion, the issue needs serious consideration, lest it become another well-intentioned venture that turns into a waste of public funds. The services are already in place and if they are utilized fully, they can help alleviate resource shortages and reduce waiting times.
While more advertising and education could help, the real problem is the stigmatization of mental illness, which dissuades people from seeking help, especially at community clinics where they might run into people they know.
Lawyer Lu Chiu-yuan (呂秋遠) yesterday wrote that someone had sought him out for legal advice on how to prevent a mental health clinic from being set up in their community, which is disheartening.
The clinics are not enough to serve the roughly 2 million people who sought help last year, a number that would increase.
Getting people the help they need as soon and as consistently as possible is crucial, and people should not be only talking about this when violent incidents happen. That only helps reinforce the stigma that all mental health patients are dangerous.
Several experts at the forum agreed that the NHI should cover mental health services, noting that increased accessibility would allow people to get preventive help before their symptoms possibly worsen and they become a danger to society.
However, psychiatrist Kuo Hsi-ching (郭錫卿) said that psychological issues are different from serious mental disorders, with the latter already covered by the NHI. He equated the situation to “having high blood pressure, a precursor to a disease, but not yet a medical condition.”
However, people should seek help when their problems are still manageable, as that ultimately saves costs for themselves and the public health system in the long run.
Furthermore, letting mental health issues go unchecked is different from having high blood pressure, as the former could put other people at risk.
The government should provide incentives for hospitals and psychologists to make mental health treatment more accessible. There are many details that need to be worked out, but expanding NHI coverage of mental health treatment is a worthy goal.
The gutting of Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) by US President Donald Trump’s administration poses a serious threat to the global voice of freedom, particularly for those living under authoritarian regimes such as China. The US — hailed as the model of liberal democracy — has the moral responsibility to uphold the values it champions. In undermining these institutions, the US risks diminishing its “soft power,” a pivotal pillar of its global influence. VOA Tibetan and RFA Tibetan played an enormous role in promoting the strong image of the US in and outside Tibet. On VOA Tibetan,
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), caused a national outrage and drew diplomatic condemnation on Tuesday after he arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office dressed in a Nazi uniform. Sung performed a Nazi salute and carried a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf as he arrived to be questioned over allegations of signature forgery in the recall petition. The KMT’s response to the incident has shown a striking lack of contrition and decency. Rather than apologizing and distancing itself from Sung’s actions,
US President Trump weighed into the state of America’s semiconductor manufacturing when he declared, “They [Taiwan] stole it from us. They took it from us, and I don’t blame them. I give them credit.” At a prior White House event President Trump hosted TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), head of the world’s largest and most advanced chip manufacturer, to announce a commitment to invest US$100 billion in America. The president then shifted his previously critical rhetoric on Taiwan and put off tariffs on its chips. Now we learn that the Trump Administration is conducting a “trade investigation” on semiconductors which
By now, most of Taiwan has heard Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) threats to initiate a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet. His rationale is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government’s investigation into alleged signature forgery in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recall campaign constitutes “political persecution.” I sincerely hope he goes through with it. The opposition currently holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so the initiation of a no-confidence motion and its passage should be entirely within reach. If Chiang truly believes that the government is overreaching, abusing its power and targeting political opponents — then
RSS