Confidential Mental Health Survey Conducted in China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, December 06, 2001

Confidential Mental Health Survey Conducted in China

An unprecedented special survey which gives confidentiality to interviewees and does not allow the presence of relatives or journalists was launched Wednesday in Beijing and Shanghai. It is the first time China has probed into its citizen's mental world, taking advantage of the joint efforts of the World Health Organization of the United Nations and the Ministry of Public Health of China.

Tete-a-tete Interviews

Chinese citizens randomly chosen were given a fashion-magazine styled questionnaire which contained questions about insomnia, ill-temper and intimacies like sex inclination. Some interviews were conducted up to 3 hours.

Relatives of the interviewees were asked to leave as the interviewer and interviewee proceeded with their tete-a-tete, something quite new for the gregarious Chinese people.

"It is a big step for China to take so much effort to protect privacy." said an interviewer with the Beijing-based research center which was reluctant to reveal its name. The survey is expected to be completed in two months.

Interviewers include social workers, college students and retired people, according to the practices of the WHO.

First Time to Conduct Such Survey

"It is hugely significant for the world as China has one fifth of the world's population." Pro. Huang Yueqin of Beijing University said.

The ongoing survey is part of the WHO's 2001 World Health Survey.

"This is the first time that China has looked at the social burden caused by mental health problems." Pro. Xu Yifeng of Shanghai Mental Health Care Center told Xinhua. "It will provide fundamental information for both policy-making and basic mental health work."

In the past people with mental health problems have been discriminated against. However, psychiatric treatment is now carried out across the country, and even in jails.

"I've heard nothing about the survey, but it sounds quite natural to me," said Jiang Ping, a director of a neighborhood committee in Beijing. "People want to be happy as they eat and dress better."

Mental Health Problems in China

The increase in mental health problems is drawing the attention of Chinese government. The Ministry of Public Health said last month that 16 million Chinese citizens suffer from mental health problems with the incidence rising to 17.4 percent.

More competitiveness and the collapse of traditional social relationships due to drastic social changes are blamed for the increasing mental health problems.

Many sufferers do not get medical support because of insufficient funds, equipment, professional workers and information.

5,500 Households Interviewed

In Beijing and Shanghai, 200 interviewers identified with nameplates began visiting the first of 5,500 households.

Beijing and Shanghai have established efficient supervision networks for the mentally ill and were selected as the survey cities.

President Jiang Stressed Importance of Mental Health Problem

Chinese president Jiang Zemin wrote a letter in March to Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, general director of WHO, stressing China's determination to create a friendly society for the mentally ill.

Mental Health Services in Today's China

>In the past two decades, mental health services research and associated clinical and community psychiatric studies have been conducted in China. Although one national survey showed that the prevalence of all mental disorders was 12.69 per 1,000 not a very high percentage, the total number of patients is large because the population in China is over 1.2 billion. Using the 1982 data, there are over 15 million patients with mental health problems in China. How many psychiatrists and mental hospitals are there in China? How does the Chinese government provide psychiatric services for so many mental patients? Here the author will briefly report on mental health services in China today.

Mental Health Professionals And Psychiatric Hospitals

Before the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, there were fewer than 500 psychiatrists and only 8 psychiatric hospitals on the mainland. Psychiatric education and training for Chinese medical students were conducted in only a few medical schools. However, there has been a great change since then, particularly in the past twenty years. According to the National Annual of Public Health (1996), there were 67,807 hospitals and 2,836,107 beds (2.39 beds per 1,000 population) in China, among which, there were 482 mental hospitals (0.71%) and 95,269 psychiatric-beds (3.36%).

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