At Rafal Hotel Kempinski, in Riyadh, on Tuesday morning, on behalf of his Excellency the Acting Minister of Health, Eng. Adel Faqih, the Vice Minister of Health, Mansour Nasser Al-Howasi, launched the orientation session of the healthcare system. In his address, Dr. Al-Howasi affirmed that the mental healthcare is a main turning point in terms of the mechanism of providing the health services, supervising them, following them up and protecting the patients’ rights.
He added that the Ministry of Health (MOH) provides a wide range of services. Among these are 23 mental health hospitals, and 100 clinics spread in the governmental and private hospitals, as well as 5000 beds. He also made clear that the MOH works on restoring the infrastructure of the mental health facilities by developing up-to-date models and deigns for these hospitals, guaranteeing the ability to achieve the best standards for those benefitting from them.
In the meantime, the Secretary-General of the National Committee for Supporting the Mental Health, Dr. Abdulhamid Al-Habib emphasized that this day is remarkable for the mental health as it ushers in a new phase in psychiatry in the Kingdom, service delivering method, practice regulating and rights securing. Similarly, he went on pointing out that organizing the national meeting on educating about the mental healthcare system and its requirements, recently approved by the Premiership comes as part of the Committee’s interest in the mental health issues and protecting the psychiatric patients and their families by educating on the system.
He went on adding that such a move is part of the interest of the prudent leadership in the mental health issues and protecting the psychiatric patients’ rights. Similarly, he affirmed that the system constitutes the general frame and most important reference in the mental healthcare field as it regulates the relation between the service provider and beneficiaries, maintains the patients’ safety and prevents violating their rights. This system aims at organizing and enhancing the healthcare necessary for psychiatric patients, maintaining their dignity, families and society and setting the mechanism of dealing with the psychiatric patients and their treatment in the mental health facilities.
It is worth mentioning that the mental healthcare system involves forming the Mental Healthcare General Monitoring Council at the MOH, as well as mental healthcare local monitoring councils in each region. The Council is to be chaired by a legal consultant of the Ministry of Justice, and a consultant of the Ministry of Interior assuming the office of a deputy chairman member, as well as the MOH mental health Director-General taking on the office of the Council’s general trusteeship, adding in his membership in the Council.
Similarly, the Mental Healthcare General Monitoring Council is formed by a representative from the Ministry of Social Affairs, a regular consultant related to the MOH, a member from the Human Rights Council, three physicians related to the MOH and other medical bodies, psychologist and social worker. Still, the system provides reforming this council every four years, and it can be renewed for the same period. All the more, the amendment involves each entity naming what represents it, providing the rank of the Council’s members is not less than the twelfth one or its equivalent. And, when the Council is formed, its substitute members are named.