Regulatory Framework · 2.5 Mental Health and Vulnerable Groups

Partial compliance.

Mexico has a clear legal basis for addressing mental health and addictions within the health system. The General Health Law recognizes user rights, informed consent, community-based care, and service provision, which supports the finding that the country does not lack a normative foundation for providing care to substance users with mental-health needs.

NOM-028-SSA2-2009 provides the most direct operational standard in the evidence block. It sets criteria for prevention, treatment, referral, admission, discharge, addiction control, and medical, psychological, psychosocial, and rehabilitation components. Its contribution is important because it translates the legal framework into service rules; however, a service standard does not by itself prove that services are available, continuous, or comparable in quality nationwide.

Territorial evidence shows partial implementation. In Mexico City, IAPA documents in-person and virtual care, guidance, prevention, risk reduction, emotional-care centers, and support pathways for users of psychoactive substances. In Oaxaca, the CNDH provides independent oversight of specialized addiction-treatment centers. These sources are useful because they show services and external review, but their scope remains state-level or sector-limited.

The indicator does not reach full compliance because the evidence does not establish a homogeneous national network of mental-health services for substance users. Puebla, Chiapas, and the complementary states remain probatory gaps regarding availability, coverage, continuity, comparable quality, and outcomes. At the national level, no recent independent evidence was located on effective integration between mental health and addictions, sufficient staffing, waiting times, utilization, or clinical outcomes across all federal entities.

Consequently, Mexico demonstrates a legal basis, an operational standard, and partial territorial services, but not sufficient evidence of homogeneous, continuous, comparable, and evaluated national access to mental-health services for substance users.