WHO Sends Letter of Appreciation to Gyeonggi Province for Opening of 'New Gyeonggi Provincial Psychiatric Hospital'
[Suwon Ilbo = Reporter Park No-hoon] The World Health Organization (WHO) has sent a letter of appreciation to Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung, calling the opening of the 'New Gyeonggi Provincial Psychiatric Hospital' a meaningful step toward advancing the human rights of people with mental illness.
It is highly unusual for the World Health Organization to send a letter of appreciation regarding a project operated at the level of a local government.
According to Gyeonggi Province on the 28th, Dr. Michelle Funk, head of the WHO's Policy, Law and Human Rights unit, wrote in the letter of appreciation dated June 11, "The Mental Health Crisis Response Center of the New Gyeonggi Provincial Psychiatric Hospital is a meaningful first step that groundbreakingly transforms the mental health field on the basis of human rights," adding, "I hope that international cooperation toward the recovery and human rights (of people with mental illness) will continue into the future."
To strengthen public medical care for people with mental illness, Gyeonggi Province changed the operating entity of the former Gyeonggi Provincial Psychiatric Hospital—which had been entrusted to and operated by the private sector—to the Gyeonggi Provincial Medical Center, renamed it the 'New Gyeonggi Provincial Psychiatric Hospital,' and began providing treatment on the 11th.
The 'New Gyeonggi Provincial Psychiatric Hospital' is a newly remodeled facility that leases the building of the former Seoul Metropolitan Psychiatric Hospital, located in Giheung-gu, Yongin-si. The building, with one basement level and five above-ground floors, is equipped with 50 beds and has a total authorized staff of 53, including six doctors (five psychiatrists and one family medicine doctor), as well as nurses and pharmacists.
At the New Gyeonggi Provincial Psychiatric Hospital, a psychiatric specialist is on duty 24 hours a day, and a response system has been established to enable emergency and administrative hospitalization of patients with severe mental illness, thereby minimizing treatment blind spots. In particular, instead of the seclusion and restraint procedures customarily carried out at many psychiatric hospitals, it will implement inpatient treatment that respects human rights, and will also run recovery support programs to help patients return to their communities as quickly as possible.
In addition, it will serve as a 'Mental Health Crisis Response Center' at the heart of community mental health management. The 'Mental Health Crisis Response Center' is a concept being introduced in Korea for the first time, providing a service that supports the social reintegration of psychologically and socially vulnerable individuals in crisis due to acute mental illness after intensive short-term treatment.
The province believes that these new efforts by the New Gyeonggi Provincial Psychiatric Hospital received high praise because they align with the direction of international mental health promotion pursued by the World Health Organization.
Meanwhile, Gyeonggi Province is operating a 'Mental Health Crisis Response-COVID-19 Screening Clinic' specialized for people with mental illness, the first of its kind in the nation, to respond to the COVID-19 crisis.
Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-myung said, "We will strive to ensure that Gyeonggi's human rights-based mental health system establishes itself as an exemplary international policy and contributes to the mental health of all humanity," adding, "I hope this letter of appreciation will serve as a momentum for continuing international cooperation."