A History of Mental Healthcare in Taiwan

Abstract

This chapter examines the development of mental healthcare in Taiwan. Following a chronological order, we describe the century-long transformation of mental health services from custody to a wide range of community projects. Benefited from the infrastructure of healthcare during the Japanese colonialism, Taiwan has been a forerunner concerning its mental health works. Such works have also been influenced by the development of state and global health governance since World War Two, which created a series of disciplines, institutions, services and policies that supported the mental well-being of Taiwan’s citizens. In this chapter, we highlight the survey studies conducted by the National Taiwan University Hospital team, which enabled psychiatrists in Taiwan to participate in the social psychiatry projects initiated by the World Health Organization. We also introduce the unique hospital-based community works in the context of resource scarcity before the government rendered its full support. In addition, we comment on the making and challenges of the Mental Health Law in Taiwan. Lastly, we analyze the relationships between the disastrous natural environment of the island and the recent focuses of mental healthcare. In this chapter, we argue that, on one hand, the development of mental health in Taiwan has relied on the gradual professionalization of the psychiatric professions, the maturation of mental health as a form of common knowledge, and the input from non-medical communities, including non-governmental organizations and mental health service users as opposed to professional approaches during the last two decades. On the other hand, we assume that despite its achievements regarding psychiatric services, legal supports, and NGO initiatives, the mental health care system in Taiwan still faces obstacles because of rapid, substantial changes in both Taiwanese and global societies. In the epilogue, we describe the dilemma of mental healthcare provision that has been caught up between the outgrowing civil society and the pharmaceutical industry against the backdrop of neoliberalism.