At the Cabinet meeting on Thursday, Premier Cho Jung-tai received a briefing from the Ministry of Health and Welfare on a plan to strengthen whole-of-society mental health resilience. The premier said that mental health is a universal human right and is a key focus of the government's current administrative agenda. He requested ministries and agencies ensure that they adopt a "mental health in all policies" approach to policy planning and implementation, in order to comprehensively enhance the mental health and wellbeing of the public.
The premier said the plan comprises six major strategies and combines the resources of 13 ministries and agencies, approaching the issue from the perspectives of resource deployment, primary prevention, medical care and crisis management, in order to build improved and more universally accessible mental health support systems. The plan not only follows President Lai Ching-te's policy vision of creating a healthier Taiwan, but also aligns with the World Health Organization statement that "without mental health there can be no true physical health." Premier Cho instructed all relevant ministries and agencies to devote their full efforts to carrying out the plan.