Page 60 - 2022 Taiwan Health and Welfare Report

for 16,603 times, psychological therapy for 5,013 times, 950 times of release referrals and 4,737 follow-ups.
5. The MOHW has continued to implement the "Alcohol Addiction Treatment Plan" from 2006 and subsidies were provided to help 2,786 people. Moreover, since 2015, the MOHW has been implementing the "Pilot Project for the Establishment of a Treatment and Social Rehabilitation Service Model for Problem Drinkers and Alcohol Addicts", to establish a cross-network referral mechanism, to promote early treatment of alcohol addiction cases. The Ministry provided subsidies to 12 institutions in 2021 with 863 people helped.
6. Starting from 2018 onward, the MOHW took over the duty of supervising all Drug Abuse Prevention Centers in Taiwan from the Ministry of Justice, and has increased subsidized case management manpower and anti-drug business funds. In 2021, 598 case managers (including supervision) were subsidized to assist in relevant case management to improve the quality of follow-up and counseling for communities involved in cases of drug use. The MOHW also subsidized to set up 6 Substance Treatment and Research Centers, and 93 hospitals, clinics, offices of psychotherapy, psychological counselling and social work offices were connected to develop diverse treatment models and intervention solutions that are empirically proven to be effective.
7. The MOHW is committed to Internet addiction disorder (IAD) prevention and treatment. Following its Integrated Mental Health Work Plan for 2021, local departments of health and education worked together to promote its assessment tool for Internet use habits to education units to raise the level of self- awareness of youngsters and carried IAD prevention advocacy and prevention education and training. The IAD treatment professional training system development program continued to be held in 2021, extending the contents of the syllabus to draw up course teaching materials, digital courses and diagnosis, treatment and intervention model clinical guides.
Chapter 3 Medical and Public Health Manpower
▏Section 1 Current Status of Medical Manpower
1. Taiwan has 15 laws and regulations governing the licensing requirements of medical personnel: the "Physicians Act," the "Pharmacists Act," the "Midwifery Personnel Act," the "Dietitians Act," the "Nursing Personnel Act," the "Physical Therapists Act," the "Occupational Therapists Act," the "Medical Technologists Act," the "Medical Radiation Technologists Act," the "Psychologists Act," the "Respiratory Therapists Act," the "Hearing Specialists Act," the "Speech Therapists Act," the "Dental Technicians Act," and the "Optometric Personnel Act."
2. President Tsai Ing-wen promulgated the Public Health Specialists Act on June 3, 2020. Through accreditation of the state, Taiwan aims to enhance public health by expanding the pool of qualified professionals and establishing a framework of specialized services.
3. As of 2021, Taiwan had 347,755 practicing health professionals including 75,384 physicians (including medical doctors (MD) and Chinese medical doctors (CMD) and dentists), 35,977 pharmacists, 10,340 medical technologists, 7,278 medical radiation technologists, 183,253 registered nurses, 190 midwives, and 3,5025 dietitians.
▏Section 2 Training Health Professionals
In order to ensure an excellent medical workforce, school training programs, personnel development programs, and workplace training for health professionals are highly monitored every year. The results attained are as follows:
1. Regarding the training of health professionals, 1,300 students matriculate at Taiwanese medical schools each year; as for other categories of healthcare practitioners (training programs must be approved by the Ministry of Education). Taiwan's planning of the physician workforce will focus on a balanced distribution of resources, and a periodic evaluation of its effectiveness.
58