China to focus on better care for its 100 million mental patients
- Source: Global Times
- [19:04 June 21 2010]
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Last month, a man from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region beat one person to death and injured two others. Four years ago, he killed his mother and severely injured his wife and 14-year-old daughter in a hacking attack.
Also last month, a man in Heilongjiang Province killed his 13-year-old daughter and her classmate before jumping to his death.
The media has been full of reports in recent months on murders committed by mentally unstable people.
Mental illness causes great suffering to the patient and their loved ones. It has many different stages of severity and, in the most extreme cases, can lead to the relatively rare incidents such as those seen in China recently.
But, indirectly, due to the sheer numbers of people in any given country who suffer from some sort of mental condition - such as depression - mental illness can have a profound impact on society.
China's deputy Minister of Health has announced that the government aims to improve the care provided to mental health patients.
Speaking at a news conference, Yin Li also said that people are under enormous pressure amid the rapidly evolving economic and social changes in China, and this affects their psychological wellbeing.
There are currently 550 psychiatric hospitals in the country, and Yin said the authorities aim to increase the number of such establishments over the next two years, and will also increase outpatient admissions in general hospitals with psychiatric departments.
He added that all mental patients will be registered both with the police and civil affairs department, and the government will step up efforts to reduce the financial burden of adequate treatment on the families.
The National Center for Mental Health says there are more than 100 million patients receiving mental health care treatment around the country.
This also includes more than 16 million "severely ill psychotics".
The statistics show that mental illness has overtaken cancer and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases to top the list of Burdens of Disease in China.
This means that 20 percent of sufferers are unable to hold down stable jobs, and this is expected to reach 25 percent by 2020.
