Duties and Responsibilities of the Department of Health (DOH).
SEC. 30. Duties and Responsibilities of the Department of Health (DOH). - To achieve the policy and objectives of this Act, the DOH shall:
(a) Formulate, develop, and implement a national mental health program. In coordination with relevant government- agencies, create a framework for Mental Health Awareness Program to promote effective strategies regarding mental health care, its components, and services, as well as to improve awareness on stigmatized medical conditions;
(b) Ensure that a safe, therapeutic, and hygienic environment, with sufficient privacy exists in all mental health facilities and, for this purpose, shall he responsible for the regulation, licensing, monitoring, and assessment of all mental health facilities:
(c) Integrate menial health into the routine health information system and identify, collate, routinely report and use care mental health data disaggregated by sex and age. and health outcomes, including data on completed and attempted suicides, in order to improve mental health service delivery, promotion and prevention strategies;
(d) Improve research capacity and academic collaboration on national priorities for research in mental health, particularly operational research with direct relevance to service development, implementation, and the exercise of human rights by persons with mental health conditions, including the establishment of centers of excellence:
(e) Ensure that all public and private mental health institutions uphold the right of patients to be protected against torture or cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment;
(f) Coordinate with the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation to ensure that insurance packages equivalent to those covering physical disorders of comparable impact to the patient, as measured by Disability-Adjusted Life Year or other methodologies, are available to patients affected by mental health conditions;
(g) Prohibit forced or inadequately remunerated labor within mental, health facilities, unless such labor is justified as part of an accepted therapeutic treatment program;
(h) Provide support services for families and co-workers of service users, mental health professionals, workers, and other service providers;
(i) Develop alternatives to institutionalization, particularly community, recovery-based approaches to treatment aimed at receiving patients discharged from hospitals, meeting the needs expressed by persons with mental health conditions, and respecting their autonomy, decisions, dignity, and privacy;
(j) Ensure that all health facilities shall establish their respective internal review boards. In consultation with stakeholders, the DOH shall promulgate the rules and regulations necessary for the efficient disposition of all proceedings, matters, and cases referred to. or reviewed by, the internal review board;
(k) Establish a balanced system of community-based and hospital-based mental health services at all levels of the public health care system from the barangay, municipal, city, provincial, regional to the national level; and
(l) Ensure that all health workers shall undergo human rights trainings in coordination with appropriate agencies or organizations.
Duties and Responsibilities of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).
SEC. 31. Duties and Responsibilities of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR). - The CHR shall:
(a) Establish mechanisms to investigate, address, and act upon complaints of impropriety and abuse in the treatment and care received by service users, particularly when such treatment or care is administered or implemented involuntarily;
(b) Inspect mental health facilities to ensure that service users therein are not being subjected to cruel, inhumane, or degrading conditions or treatment:
(c) Investigate all cases involving involuntary treatment, confinement, or care of service users, for the purpose of ensuring strict compliance with domestic and international standard!!, respecting the legality, quality, and appropriateness of such treatment, confinement, or care: and
(d) Appoint a focal commissioner for mental health tasked with protecting and promoting the rights of service users and other persons utilizing mental health services or confined in mental health facilities, as well as the lights of mental health professionals and workers. The focal commissioner shall, upon a finding that a mental health facility, mental health professional, or mental health worker has violated any of the rights provided for in this Act, take all necessary actions to rectify or remedy such violation, including recommending that an administrative, civil, or criminal case be filed by the appropriate government agency.
SEC. 32. Investigative Role of the Commission on-Human Rights (CHR), - The investigative role of the CHR as provided in the pertinent provisions of this Act shall be limited to ail violations of human rights involving civil and political rights consistent with the powers and functions of the CHR under Section 1.8 of Article XIII of the Constitution.
Complaint and Investigation.
SEC. 33. Complaint and Investigation. - The DOH, CHR and Department of Justice (DOJ) shall receive all complaints of improprieties and abuses in mental health care and shall initiate appropriate investigation and action.
Further, the CHR shall inspect all places where psychiatric service users are held for involuntary treatment or otherwise, to ensure full compliance with domestic and international standards governing the legal basis for treatment and detention, quality of medical care and living standards. The CHR may, motu proprio. file a complaint against, erring mental health care institutions should they find any noncompliant. based, on its investigations.
SEC. 34. Duties and Responsibilities of the Department of Education (DepED), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). - The DepED, CHED and TESDA shall:
(a) Integrate age-appropriate content pertaining to mental health into the curriculum at all educational levels both in public and private institutions;
(b) Develop guidelines and standards on age-appropriate and evidenced-based mental health programs both in public and private, institutions;
(c) Pursue strategies that promote the realization of mental health and well-being in educational institutions: and
(d) Ensure that mental health promotions io public and private educational institutions shall be adequately complemented with qualified mental health professionals.
SEC. 35. Duties and Responsibilities of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Civil Service Commission (CSC). - The DOLE and the CSC shall:
(a) Develop guidelines and standards on appropriate and evidenced-based mental health programs for the workplace as described in this Act: and
(b) Develop policies that promote mental health in the workplace and address stigma and discrimination suffered by people with mental health conditions.
Duties and Responsibilities of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
SEC. 36. Duties and Responsibilities of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). - The DSWD shall:
(a) Refer service users to mental health facilities, professionals, workers, and other service providers for appropriate care;
(b) Provide or facilitate access to public or group housing facilities, counselling, therapy, and livelihood training and other available skills development programs: and
(c) In coordination with the LGUs and the DOH. formulate, develop, and implement community resilience and psychosocial well-being training", including psychosocial support services during and after natural disasters and other calamities.
Duties and Responsibilities of the Local Government Units (LGUs).
SEC. 37. Duties and Responsibilities of the Local Government Units (LGUs). - The LGUs shall:
(a) Review, formulate, and develop the regulations and guidelines necessary to implement an effective mental health care and wellness policy within the territorial jurisdiction of each LGU, including the passage of a local ordinance on the subject of mental health, consistent with existing relevant national policies and guidelines;
(b) Integrate mental health care services in the basic health care services, and ensure that mental health services are provided in primary health care facilities and hospitals, within their respective territorial jurisdictions;
(c) Establish training programs necessary to enhance the capacity of mental health service providers at the LGU level, in coordination with appropriate national government agencies and other stakeholders:
(d) Promote deinstitutionalization and other recovery-based approaches to the delivery of mental health care services:
(e) Establish, reorient, and modernize mental health care facilities necessary to adequately provide mental health services, within their respective territorial jurisdictions;
(f) Where independent living arrangements are not available, provide or facilitate access to public housing facilities, vocational training and skills development programs, and disability or pension benefits:
(g) Refer service users to mental health facilities, professionals, workers, and other service, providers for appropriate care; and
(h) Establish a multi-sectoral stakeholder network for the identification, management, and prevention of mental health conditions.
Upgrading of Local Hospitals and Health Care Facilities.
SEC. 38. Upgrading of Local Hospitals and Health Care Facilities. - Each LGU. upon its determination of the necessity based on well-supported, data provided by its local health office, shall establish or upgrade hospitals and facilities with adequate and qualified personnel, equipment, and supplies to be able to provide mental health services and to address psychiatric emergencies: Provided, That people in geographically isolated and/or highly populated and depressed areas shall have the same level of access and shall not be neglected by providing other means such as home visits or mobile health care clinics, as needed: Provided, further, That the national government shall provide additional funding and other necessary assistance for the effective implementation of this provision.
Source: Supreme Court E-Library, Republic of the Philippines. Philippine laws are public documents (works of the government).
