自殺防治法

The Act is enacted in order to strengthen suicide prevention efforts while caring for the people’s lives and safety, and cultivating respect for life value in society.

The term "competent authority/authorities," as used herein, shall refer to the Ministry of Health and Welfare at central government level, the municipal governments at municipality level, and the county/city governments at county level.

Taking into considerations of individual, family and social determinants, suicide prevention shall be implemented with the strategy of inputting whole society resources into aspects including biology, psychology, society, economics, culture, education, labor, among others.

The central competent authority shall establish a suicide prevention advisory committee cross ministries and councils in order to facilitate the implementation, support, coordination, and integrations of suicide prevention tasks across governmental departments.

1Each municipal or county/city competent authority shall establish an inter-departmental suicide prevention committee for the purpose of coordination, counseling, supervision, assessment, and implementation regarding suicide prevention practices.

2The composition, missions, meeting procedures and other matters to follow of the aforementioned suicide prevention committee shall be determined by the municipal or county/city competent authorities.

1All government agencies, schools, legal persons, institutions, and organizations shall cooperate with the central, municipal, or county/city competent authorities in implementing suicide prevention practices, delivering suicide prevention educational programs, and providing channels for accessing psychological counseling.

2Under the necessity of implementing suicide prevention practices, the central competent authority may request related government agencies to provide assistance or relevant data.

3The central, municipal, or county/city competent authorities may, when necessary, subsidize the fees for suicide prevention educational programs and channels for accessing psychological counseling under paragraph one.

1The governments at all levels shall allocate budgets annually to fund suicide prevention for executing relevant matters stipulated in this Act.

2The central competent authority shall reward the municipal or county/city competent authorities that achieve outstanding performance in implementing suicide prevention programs.

1The municipal or county/city competent authorities shall appoint personnel related to suicide prevention implementation and improve their professional skills.

2Regulations governing the qualifications, training, education programs and other relevant matters of the personnel related to suicide prevention implementation under paragraph one shall be formulated by the central competent authority.

3When necessary, the central competent authority shall subsidize the municipal or county/city competent authorities in regard to the matters set forth in the preceding two paragraphs.

1The central competent authority shall formulate national suicide prevention guidelines which shall be enforced after submission to and ratification by the Executive Yuan.

2The central competent authority may commission a legal person or organization to set up a national suicide prevention center to handle the following matters:

31. Surveying the current status of suicide prevention practices;

42. Conducting analysis of suicide data characteristics and preparing suicide prevention recommendations;

53. Preparing reports on suicide prevention results every year;

64. Advising the municipal or county/city competent authorities in implementing suicide prevention measures that suit local conditions;

75. Promoting and organizing the education and training of suicide prevention gatekeepers;

86. Establishing and improving the system of suicide prevention reporting, aftercare and visit;

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The central competent authority shall set up or entrust an entity to run a 24-hour toll-free suicide prevention emergency counseling hotline.

1The central competent authority shall establish a national suicide prevention report system through which the medical personnel, social workers, long-term care providers, school faculty and staff, police officers, firemen, correctional facility staffs, village chiefs, village officers, and other related practitioners may engage in suicide prevention reporting upon becoming aware of events of suicidal behaviors.

2The methods and contents of the aforementioned reporting shall be determined by the central competent authority. The identity of the reporting persons shall be kept confidential.

3Upon receiving the reports, the municipal or county/city competent authorities shall take action immediately. When necessary, competent authorities may engage in or commission other agencies, institutions or organizations to provide aftercare and visit.

The competent authorities at all levels shall establish mechanisms to reduce opportunities for people to access to highly lethal suicide tools or to utilize highly lethal suicide methods.

In order to prevent suicide reattempts, the municipal or county/city competent authorities shall provide suicide attempters and their family or friends with referrals to resources of psychological counselling, medical treatment, social welfare, education, employment and others.

The municipal or county/city competent authorities or the agencies, institutions, organizations commissioned by such authorities may request assistance from the police agencies, medical institutions, schools, or other related agencies or institutions in regard to aftercare and visit services. Recipients of such a request shall cooperate.

1All agencies, schools, legal persons, institutions, organizations, and related practitioners shall, in the course of engaging in practices related to this Act, keep confidential the personal data of persons with suicidal behavior and their family or friends; they shall not disclose such information without justification.

2The municipal or county/city competent authorities shall impose a fine of not less than NT$6,000 and not more than NT$60,000 on any entity that discloses without justification the abovementioned personal information.

1Promotional materials, publications, radio, television, the Internet, or other media may not report or contain the following matters:

21. Messages that tutor suicide methods or instigate, lure, or provoke people to engage in suicidal behavior;

32. Detailed descriptions of the suicide method and cause of a suicidal person;

43. Texts, audios, images, or videos that may induce people to engage in suicidal behavior;

54. Information about the sales of toxic substances or other lethal suicide tools;

65. Other circumstances, as deemed by the central competent authority, sufficient to encourage suicidal behaviors.

1In the event that a radio or television station violates the provisions of the preceding article, the authority in charge of the industry shall impose a fine on the violating station not less than NT$100,000 and not more than NT$1,000,000 and order it to make corrections within a specified period of time. Fines may be imposed consecutively in case the violating station fails to make corrections when the specified period expires.

2Except for those specified in the preceding paragraph, in the event of violation of the preceding article by promotional materials, publications, the Internet, or other media, the municipal or county/city competent authorities shall impose a fine on the person in charge and related offenders not less than NT$100,000 and not more than NT$1,000,000, and may confiscate the items specified in the preceding article or order them to remove the offending content, withdraw the items, or undertake other necessary measures within a specified period of time. Fines may be imposed consecutively in case of failure to comply with the orders when the specified period expires.

The enforcement rules of the Act shall be enacted by the central competent authority.

The Act shall become effective on the date of promulgation.