In a sharp rebuttal to police, a health official yesterday said that a formal diagnosis is required before the mental status of a man suspected of beheading a girl in Taipei on Monday can be determined.
Ministry of Health and Welfare Department of Mental and Oral Health Director Shen Lih-jong (諶立中) said talking to oneself after using drugs or when depressed are only signs of mental health issues, which is very different from a formal diagnosis of mental illness.
He said there are many types of mental illness, each with a different definition, and whether a person has mental illness can only be determined through a formal diagnosis by psychiatrists.
Under current regulations, matters related to mandatory hospitalization due to mental illness are a complicated process, Shen said.
Someone allegedly suffering from mental illness needs to be assessed by two specialist physicians before a mandatory assessment when a community treatment review committee meets with the person to assess their condition, Shen said.
After the review, the person and their family members have to agree in writing to the person being hospitalized, he added.
However, Shen said he respects the opinions of the Taipei Police Department.
During a search of the suspect’s home on Monday, police said they found 29 notebooks that they claim are evidence of the man’s mental illness.
The suspect, 33-year-old Wang Ching-yu (王景玉), was sent to a hospital for treatment twice between October 2010 and October 2014 after physical conflicts with his family, police said in a statement on Tuesday.
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)
‘NEVER!’ Taiwan FactCheck Center said it had only received donations from the Open Society Foundations, which supports nonprofits that promote democratic values Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has never received any donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a cofounder of the organization wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. The Taipei-based organization was established in 2018 by Taiwan Media Watch Foundation and the Association of Quality Journalism to monitor and verify news and information accuracy. It was officially registered as a foundation in 2021. National Chung Cheng University communications professor Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), a cofounder and chairman of TFC, was responding to online rumors that the TFC receives funding from the US government’s humanitarian assistance agency via the Open Society Foundations (OSF),
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT