Society

After a spate of brutal murders, mental health gets a closer look

By Shan Juan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-25 07:24

Beijing - A large-scale mental health-screening program will soon be launched in Central China's Hubei province to improve service to locals suffering serious mental disorders, with the aim of ensuring public safety, the provincial mental health administration said.

Under the program, those who might be a threat to public safety will receive free treatment in the province, where there are an estimated 800,000 patients with a variety of serious mental illnesses, including depression, schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

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"Patients who display great propensity for violence will be the focus of the program to help maintain social security," said Wang Gaohua, deputy director of psychiatry of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association.

The regional initiative followed a spate of brutal murders in recent months, committed by those suspected of being mentally ill, which have rocked the nation.

The Ministry of Health ordered that the management of serious mental patients be improved nationwide in February.

On May 12, the provincial public security department of Southeast China's Fujian province ordered province-wide screening of serious patients with an inclination to violence.

Currently, China has about 18 million people suffering from serious mental disorders.

A shocking majority - about 80 percent of the total - have not received medical aid largely due to limited access to high-cost quality resources, according to official statistics.

Widespread social stigma and discrimination associated with mental problems are also an issue, said Wang.

He emphasized that the program will help raise awareness of mental health issues.

Further details on the program are unavailable at this time.

Currently, police officers randomly send people they deem to be mentally ill to psychiatric hospitals for compulsory treatment.

Occasionally, cases surface where law enforcement officers were found to have abused their power and sent mentally healthy people to asylums.

"It tarnishes the image of the professional mental health sector," said a Beijing-based veteran clinical psychiatry, surnamed Tian.

"Police should be extremely careful when sending people to mental hospitals," he said.

But given that police officials are not mental health experts, they may also send the wrong person to mental health units unintentionally, he added.

A mental health law would help tackle a series of problems related to mental illnesses in China, said Pang Yu, a doctor at Beijing Huilongguan Hospital, one of the leading psychiatric institutions in the country.

"Voluntary access to mental health treatment should be secured under the law, which predominantly aims to provide the mentally ill with legal protection and subsidized health care," he noted.

The legislation, which was first drafted in the 1980s, is still collecting dust due to the huge funds required for implementation, experts said.

Only a few prosperous provinces and cities, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong, have drafted regional regulations on mental health.