CCTV News: On January 22, the Ministry of Civil Affairs held a regular press conference for the first quarter of 2025. Zhang Zhende, deputy director of the Department of Social Affairs of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, introduced that recently, the Ministry of Civil Affairs announced the "Regulations on the Management of Mental Health Welfare Institutions" to the public, which is a departmental regulation jointly formulated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the National Health Commission. The Measures will be officially implemented on March 1 this year.

The Measures mainly regulate mental health welfare institutions established by civil affairs departments and obtaining medical institution practice licenses in accordance with the law. The targets of institutions are mainly mentally disabled patients among the extremely poor who are responsible for supporting and assisting the civil affairs department. At present, there are 141 such institutions nationwide, with about 74,000 beds and more than 60,000 patients in hospital.

The formulation of the "Measures" is mainly based on three aspects of consideration. First, in order to better protect the legitimate rights and interests of patients with mental disorders. The patients admitted and cared for by mental health welfare institutions are the most special and difficult groups, and are also the top priority for the civil affairs department to assume the bottom-line guarantee responsibility. The second is to better regulate the services provided by mental health welfare institutions. The "Mental Health Law of the People's Republic of China", "Interim Measures for Social Assistance", "Opinions of the State Council on Further Improving the Rescue and Support System for People with Special Poorness", "Opinions of the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Accelerating the Development of Mental Health Welfare Services of Civil Affairs" and other laws, regulations and policy documents have put forward clear requirements for the treatment and rehabilitation services of patients with mental disorders among people with special poverty. The formulation of the Measures will help strengthen and improve the mental health welfare services provided by mental health welfare institutions. The third is to better promote the standardization of mental health welfare institutions themselves. The above laws, regulations and policy documents put forward specific requirements for strengthening the standardized management of mental health welfare institutions. In practice, various places have also explored many typical practices based on local actual conditions and accumulated a lot of good experiences. It is urgently necessary to be elevated to institutional documents to guide and promote work. The formulation of the Measures will help promote the healthy and orderly development of mental health welfare institutions.

The Measures have 6 chapters and 49 articles, and the main content is to refine and standardize the service objects and service content of the institution, and clarify the planning and construction, internal management, guarantee and supervision measures of the institution. In addition, the Measures also clarifies the departmental responsibilities of the civil affairs department and the health department, and clarifies that the civil affairs department is responsible for guiding, supervising and managing mental health welfare institutions. The health department mainly guides and supervises the medical service behavior of mental health welfare institutions.

Through the implementation of the Measures, the two departments of civil affairs and health can better base themselves on departmental responsibilities, integrate departmental resources, and give full play to departmental advantages, better safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of patients with mental disorders, and better provide them with mental health welfare services.

Zhang Zhende said that in the next step, the Ministry of Civil Affairs will work with the National Health Commission to guide local governments and mental health welfare institutions to implement the "Measures" and jointly promote the high-quality development of the welfare undertakings for the disabled.