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Chapter Law Content

Title: Mental Health Act CH
Category: Ministry of Health and Welfare(衛生福利部)
Chapter 4 Assisting Access to Medical Care, Reporting, and Follow-up Protection
Article 29
Protectors or family of patients or persons under conditions as prescribed in Subparagraph 1 of Article 3, shall assist them to get access to medical care.
Upon notice of such persons of the preceding Paragraph or the inappropriate restriction of their freedom, the municipality or county (city) competent authorities shall actively provide assistance to them.
Medical care institutions shall report to the municipality or county (city) competent authorities the data of those who are diagnosed or examined by specialist physicians to be severe patients.
Article 30
In case of patients or persons under the conditions as prescribed in Subparagraph 1 of Article 3 in correction agencies, places of rehabilitative disposition, and other institutions or places serving the purposes of detention and probation, the agencies, institutions, or places shall provide medical care or escort them to receive medical care.
In case of persons as prescribed in the preceding Paragraph in the social welfare institutions and other institutions or places that shelter or place persons for long-term living and residence, the institutions or places shall assist them to receive medical care.
Article 31
Upon the discharge of their patients, the agencies, institutions, or places mentioned in the preceding Paragraph shall immediately notify the competent authorities of municipalities or counties (cities) where the domiciles (residence) of the patients are located for them to provide follow-up protection and offer necessary assistance.
Article 32
Police agencies or fire-fighting agencies which, while on duty, find patients or persons under the conditions as prescribed in Subparagraph 1 of Article 3 who harm others or themselves or have the danger of harm, shall inform the local competent authorities and request them to assist management or join management based on needs; unless otherwise provided by law, they should escort the patients or persons to nearby appropriate medical care institution for medical care.
People who find the persons mentioned in the preceding Paragraph shall immediately notify the local police agency or fire-fighting agency.
After the medical care institution mentioned in Paragraph 1 handles the patient appropriately, the patients shall be transferred to the psychiatric institutions designated by the municipality or county (city) competent authorities (hereunder abbreviated as the designated psychiatric institutions) for continuous care.
As soon as the identities of those who are transferred to medical care institutions according the Paragraph 1 are ascertained, the local competent authorities shall immediately notify their families and assist them to receive medical care.
As regards the psychiatric institutions mentioned in Paragraph 3, regulations governing the ways of designation, qualifications and conditions, management, designation of specialist physicians, and other matters to be complied with, shall be promulgated by the central competent authority.
Article 33
In order to facilitate the provision of emergency management to protect safety of the lives and properties of the public, the competent authorities, police agencies, and fire-sighting agencies may request the telecommunication enterprises’ cooperation in displaying automatically the numbers and locations of incoming calls when setting up special outward service lines.
When agencies mentioned in the preceding Paragraph learn that the callers harm others or themselves or have the danger of harm, the agencies may contact for asking the telecommunication enterprises to provide the address of the person’s location and other information relevant to rescue and care; the telecommunication enterprises may not refuse.
Personnel in charge of the work mentioned in the two preceding Paragraphs shall keep confidential and may not disclose the operational procedures and contents of information learned thereby.
Article 34
When a patient leaves the mental health care institution without permission, the institution shall immediately notify the protector; if the patient’s whereabouts is unknown, it shall immediately report to the local police agency.
When the police agency finds the patient leaving the institution without permission as mentioned in the preceding Paragraph, it shall notify the original institution and assist transferring the patient back.