Public Policy Document

The UAE government issued the National Policy for the Promotion of Mental Health in 2017 to establish a multi-sectoral national framework to enhance mental health services in the UAE and to advance them to the highest global standards.

The policy aims to keep pace with modern trends and concepts in the field of mental health, safeguard the rights of mental health patients, and ensure the provision of necessary healthcare for them. Additionally, it seeks to highlight the importance given to mental health in the UAE, contribute to building a healthy and balanced society, enhance general well-being, and support sustainable development. This will be achieved through an effective system that works in partnership with relevant entities to provide comprehensive, preventive, therapeutic, and rehabilitative mental health services that are reliable at all levels of healthcare, making mental health services accessible to everyone.

1. Enhance the effectiveness of the promotion of awareness of mental health.
2. Further develop, strengthen, and expand the scope of comprehensive, integrated, and responsive mental health services to meet the needs of all segments and of society in the UAE, including all age groups.
3. Foster multi-sectoral collaboration to implement mental health enhancement policy.
4. Strengthen the prevention of mental disorders across all segments of society.
5. Enhance capacities, improve information systems, collect and utilize data, and conduct research on mental health to enhance its services.
    

1. Policies and Laws:
   • Develop, enhance, update, and implement national policies, strategies, programs, and legislations related to mental health across all relevant sectors, aligning with available data, best practices, and international human rights conventions for people with mental challenges and mental illnesses, as well as ratified international human rights laws and relevant national laws.
2. Resource Planning:
   • Plan based on systematically estimated needs and allocate a budget across all relevant sectors that corresponds with specified human and other resources necessary to implement agreed-upon mental health service development plans and actions, based on data and evidence.
3. Restructuring Services and Expanding Coverage:
   • Follow a systematic process to shift the location of care—when necessary—away from psychiatric hospitals where patients stay for extended periods to facilities providing primary healthcare services. Expand coverage, including the use of gradual care principles, as appropriate, to address priority cases and utilize a network of interconnected community mental health services, including short-term inpatient care, outpatient care in general hospitals, primary healthcare, comprehensive mental health service centers, day care centers, and support for those with mental disorders living with their families.
4. Integrated and Responsive Care:
   • Integrate and coordinate preventive, promotive, rehabilitative, and comprehensive care and support services aimed at meeting the mental and physical health needs of people with mental disorders of all ages and facilitating their recovery within general health and social services through the development of therapeutic programs and recovery plans based on their needs.
5. Human Resource Development:
   • Build the knowledge and skills of service providers, both specialized in psychiatry and non-specialized, to provide mental health and social care services by incorporating mental health into undergraduate and postgraduate curricula and through training and mentoring health professionals working in the field, particularly in non-specialized facilities. This will enable them to identify individuals with mental disorders and provide them with appropriate treatment and support, as well as refer them to other levels of care as necessary.
6. Stakeholder Collaboration:
   • Engage stakeholders from all relevant sectors, including individuals with mental disorders, their caregivers, and their families, in the development and implementation of mental health policies, legislations, and services through a formal mechanism.
7. Identifying At-Risk Groups for Enhanced Prevention Efforts:
   • Proactively identify and provide appropriate support to groups particularly vulnerable to mental health conditions who also face difficulty accessing services.
8. Mental Health Promotion and Prevention:
   • Develop multi-sectoral plans combining comprehensive and targeted interventions aimed at promoting mental health and preventing mental disorders; reducing discrimination and human rights violations; and integrating these plans into national public health promotion legislations.
9. Enhancing Efforts in Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment, Rehabilitation, and Aftercare:
   • Seek to enhance efforts in the prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and aftercare resulting from substance abuse and psychotropic substances.
10. Developing Mental Health Information Systems:
    • Include mental health in the routine health information system, identify key mental health data disaggregated by gender and age, compare and report it routinely, and use it to improve the delivery of mental health services, mental health promotion policies, and mental disorder prevention.
11. Enhancing Data Collection and Mental Health Research:
    • Improve research capacities and academic collaboration regarding national research priorities in mental health, especially applied research directly related to the development and implementation of mental health services.

1. Establish rules and standards to regulate the interaction between people affected by mental health disorders and the various caregivers. 
2. Guarantee access to high-quality mental health care through the implementation of international best standards and the protection of the rights of individuals impacted by mental illnesses.
3. Mitigate the negative effects of psychological or mental disorders on individuals, families, and society. 
    

Patients with mental health issues, caregivers of people with mental health issues, groups of individuals of all ages subjected to causes and stressors leading to mental illness, mental health professionals and service providers from public and private sectors, and academic and research institutions.