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The COVID-19 Mental Wellness Taskforce (CoMWT), which was convened in October 2020, has completed its review of the psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the population.
Amongst its findings, the CoMWT has identified three key issues that require a whole-of-government (WOG) approach to address. These three issues are- Need for Overarching Whole-of-Government Strategy; Need for Better Signposting Given Wealth of Resources; and Better Alignment of Mental Health Training Resources and More Trained Mental Health Professionals.
The taskforce has therefore made recommendations to address these issues- Develop an Overarching Strategy on Mental Health and Well-being; Develop a One-stop Online Portal for National Mental Health Resources; and Develop a National Mental Health Competency Training Framework.
Moving forward, the Ministry of Health (MOH) will act on the CoMWT’s recommendations and enlarge the Taskforce into an inter-agency platform to oversee the development of a national overarching mental health and well-being strategy.
Named the Interagency Taskforce on Mental Health and Well-being, the platform will also coordinate interagency efforts and monitor outcomes, focusing on cross-cutting issues that require multi- and inter-agency collaboration. The new platform will be chaired by Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Health, Dr Janil Puthucheary.
