There is no 2025 edition of the CBAHI mental health hospital standards that we could verify. CBAHI's standards page listed the programme as in preparation on 1 September 2025, and Saudi press reported its launch on 28 October 2025 without an edition number or effective date.
This guide is for medical directors, psychiatric nursing leaders and quality and patient safety officers in Saudi mental health hospitals who need to know what applies now.
Is there a CBAHI Mental Health Hospital Standards 2025 edition?
Not one we could verify. CBAHI, the Saudi Central Board for Accreditation of Healthcare Institutions, publishes its standards as programmes, one per type of facility. Its national standards page (archived copy, September 2025) split them into current programmes and programmes in preparation.
The current list covered hospitals, primary healthcare centres, medical laboratories and blood banks, outpatient centres, dental centres, home care, acute coronary syndrome services and seasonal hospitals. Mental health hospitals sat in the second list, with diabetes centres, stroke centres, rehabilitation, oncology and dialysis centres.
About eight weeks later, the Saudi news site Ajel reported that CBAHI launched four national standards programmes at the Global Health Exhibition in Riyadh. One of them was for mental health hospitals. The report describes its aims as patient safety, patient rights and an evidence-based therapeutic environment. It gives no edition number, chapter list or effective date.
CBAHI's website refused connections from our location, and no archived copy after October 2025 could be read. So we cannot tell you the manual's title, edition, chapters or start date. Some pages, including an earlier version of this guide, call it the 2025 edition. Treat that label as unconfirmed until CBAHI states it.
Why do the CBAHI hospital standards not cover psychiatric hospitals?
Because CBAHI leaves them out. Its hospital accreditation programme page (archived copy, April 2025) says the hospital manual is not for facilities that treat patients with mental illness. It also excludes long-term care facilities.
That is why a separate mental health programme matters. Until it is in use, a psychiatric hospital has no CBAHI manual written for its services. Our guide to the CBAHI National Hospital Standards explains how the general hospital programme, its 20 Essential Safety Requirements and its survey pathway work. Do not assume the mental health programme copies them. Ask CBAHI.
Is CBAHI accreditation mandatory for a mental health hospital?
CBAHI states that a Cabinet decree in late 2013 made its accreditation mandatory for all public and private healthcare facilities in Saudi Arabia. It also says the Ministry of Health makes CBAHI accreditation a condition for renewing a facility's licence.
Keep two roles apart. CBAHI accredits facilities against its national standards. The Ministry of Health licenses them and enforces the Mental Health Care Law. A psychiatric hospital answers to both, so its policies and records need to be consistent with the law before any survey tests them.
Which records does the Saudi Mental Health Care Law require?
Saudi Arabia's Mental Health Care Law was issued by Royal Decree M/56 dated 20/9/1435 AH. The Ministry of Health publishes its Executive Regulation, third issue, dated 2021 (1442 AH). It sets duties for voluntary, emergency and compulsory admission, patient rights, treatment records and electroconvulsive therapy.
The table summarises six of those duties in our own words. The last column is AGS's practical reading of the records that show each duty was met. It is not the law's wording and not legal advice.
| Area | What the regulation sets | Records to keep |
|---|---|---|
| Emergency admission | No more than 72 hours from the doctor's examination. Recorded in the patient's file. The psychiatric facility's management is notified on the set form, and the patient or guardian is told | Timed admission note, notification form, note of who was informed |
| Change to compulsory admission | Approval within the 72 hours from a second psychiatrist, or from two psychiatrists if a non-psychiatrist made the emergency admission | Signed and timed second assessment linked to the first |
| Seclusion and restriction | A patient right not to be secluded or restricted except when the treating physician decides it is needed, for a set period, by the least restrictive means and in humane conditions | Physician order with reason and duration, observation log, end time, review |
| Every treatment intervention | Article 18: each intervention is recorded in the file on the medical record forms. The head of the treating team checks this, and gaps are reported as incidents | File audit results and the incident reports they raise |
| Electroconvulsive therapy | Article 19: explicit written consent from the patient or guardian after being told the nature, purpose, side effects and alternatives | Signed consent, the facility's ECT policy, treatment records |
| Technical medical committee | Article 20: each inpatient psychiatric facility forms a committee of three psychiatrists, at least one a consultant | Formation decision and meeting minutes |
The regulation also provides for a patients' rights committee in each psychiatric facility and sets steps for a compulsory patient who leaves without permission. Its annexes contain the Ministry's forms. Use those forms rather than redrawing them.
This guide covers documentation, not clinical practice. Decisions on admission, seclusion and treatment belong to your psychiatrists under the law and your hospital's own policies.
How should a psychiatric hospital prepare while the edition is unconfirmed?
Start with what is certain. The law's duties apply whatever the CBAHI manual says, so audit them first. Pull a sample of emergency and compulsory admission files and check each one against the 72-hour clock, the second psychiatrist's approval and the notification form.
Next, review seclusion and restriction episodes. For each one, the file should show who ordered it, why, for how long, how the patient was observed and when it ended. Look in particular for missing end times and unsigned orders.
Then build the hospital-wide systems that CBAHI's general hospital standards already cover, such as personnel files, staff training on equipment, infection prevention and leadership processes. Every hospital needs these systems, but check the details against the mental health manual once you have it.
Finally, write to CBAHI's standards department and ask for the mental health manual, its edition and its effective date. If your hospital also works towards international accreditation, our guide to JCI hospital accreditation covers that programme.
How AGS can help
The CBAHI Mental Health Hospital (QMS) kit contains 64 editable Microsoft Word documents. It includes a quality manual, 21 procedures and 15 forms, among them a restraint and seclusion use and monitoring form and a medication administration record. It also has 10 checklists, an accreditation evidence index, and guidance on restraint and seclusion and on suicide risk assessment.
Frequently asked questions
Can we use the CBAHI National Hospital Standards instead?
CBAHI's hospital programme page says the hospital manual is not for facilities that treat patients with mental illness. A general hospital with a psychiatric ward is a different case, so ask CBAHI how it will be surveyed.
Does the Mental Health Care Law replace the CBAHI standards?
No. The law sets legal duties that the Ministry of Health enforces. CBAHI accreditation is a separate assessment against national standards, and a hospital needs to meet both.
Does AGS supply the CBAHI standards text?
No. CBAHI distributes its own manuals. AGS does not reproduce or bundle standards text.
Does buying documentation mean the hospital will be accredited?
No. Documents are a starting point. Accreditation depends on how the system is implemented and on CBAHI's survey findings.
AGS provides independent documentation toolkits. This guide and the referenced kit are prepared to support CBAHI requirements. They are not affiliated with, endorsed by or approved by the Saudi Central Board for Accreditation of Healthcare Institutions or the Ministry of Health, and they do not guarantee any survey or accreditation outcome.
Reviewed October 2026. Facts checked against the sources current at publication.
