The law on psychiatric treatment issued by the President has recently passed on training National Council for Mental Health By decision of the Prime Minister presided over by the Minister in charge of health or his representative, and the law has established the mandate of the Council as follows:
1- Supervision and control of regional mental health councils.
2- Monitoring the implementation of the provisions of this law in mental health facilities.
3- Develop policies that guarantee respect for the rights and safety of the mentally ill.
4- Publish periodic reports on its work according to the provisions of the implementing rules of this law.
5- Supervise the conditions of entry, detention and treatment of the mentally ill and ensure that they enjoy the guarantees and rights provided by this law..
6- Decide on appeals against the decisions of the regional mental health councils.
7- Definition of the rules for the authorization issued by the Ministry of Health for the management and operation of mental health facilities, renewal and revocation.
8- The Council has a technical committee of specialized doctors to examine, where necessary, the medical records, according to the provisions of the executive regulations of this law..
9- The council performs the functions of the regional mental health council in governorates where a regional mental health council has not been established.
The Psychiatric Patient Care Act provides penalties against the psychiatrist if he diagnoses or treats diseases or undertakes any organic treatment, which only doctors are allowed to practice, or if he examines the patient’s body or writes medical prescriptions or medicines for him .
And the Ministry of Health and Population has announced an increase in the number of medical establishments licensed to treat People with mental illnesses Drug Addiction Patients, which are registered with all of the National Mental Health Council regional boards at 167 facilities, as well as reviewing 36 new facilities, through the end of the first half of 2022. .
Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, official spokesman for the Ministry of Health and Population, confirmed that the number of medical specialists and consultants who applied for membership and were registered in the registers of the National Mental Health Council had risen to 695 doctors. and the number of inspecting doctors in regional mental health councils rises to 72..
For her part, Dr Manal Al-Attar, head of the Central Department of the Technical Secretariat of the National Mental Health Council, said the Council organized 9 awareness-raising workshops and seminars, as well as 27 training courses, aimed to 652 mental health practitioner trainees, as well as holding regular meetings with institutional patient rights committees, government and private, to ensure patients’ rights are fully implemented.
Al-Attar confirmed that the response rate in examining complaints received by the General Administration of Mental Patient Rights Care, as well as those received by the Unified Government Complaints System, is 100%, and the General Administration for the Treatment of the Rights of the Psychiatric Patient made 84 visits to psychiatric facilities..
It recalls that inspection campaigns organized by the National Mental Health Council, in cooperation with the General Administration of Drug Control, have succeeded in closing 18 unlicensed work centers, noting that the overall number of serious violations that have been reported urgently to the judicial authorities amounted to 12 violations..
