Guangzhou, the capital city of south China's Guangdong Province is being urged to offer
free and more effective mental health services after a series of
tragedies in the past week.
The tragedies involved mental patients injuring or killing their
loved ones or pedestrians in the city.
"The number of patients with mental health problems increased 40
percent last year on 2005 to 40,000," said Ye Minshu, outpatient
department director of the Guangzhou Baiyun psychological
hospital.
"Reliance on the relatives or guardians of patients is far from
an effective means of monitoring and controlling their behavior,"
said Zhang, director of the Guangzhou civil administration bureau's
psychiatric hospital.
"Communities should get themselves involved in such monitoring
and provide necessary support and help to families."
Zhang added that awareness of mental illnesses should also be
propagated further among citizens.
Liang Ju, director of the rehabilitation division of the
Guangzhou disabled persons' federation, called for free outpatient
mental health treatment in the city.
Liang said free outpatient medical services are currently
provided only to local patients whose families are receiving basic
living allowances from the government.
"But if all of the mental patients (whether they are receiving
basic living allowances or not) are exempt from outpatient fees,
the total number of inpatients (with mental illnesses) will
actually go down," he said.
"It will therefore help reduce hospitalization expenditure,
which is always higher than outpatient expenditure, as well as the
social costs as a whole."
A recent government report revealed that a few cities in
Guangdong, such as Shenzhen and Shantou, are offering free
outpatient services to mental patients, despite their lack of
resources. The medical costs are borne by local government.
Liang said community medical services to mental patients should
be promoted further, and that they were "economically acceptable
for most of the patients while effective enough to control their
health problems".
"Guangdong has over 40,000 patients suffering from mental health
issues, and about one-third, or 12, 000, of them do not receive
proper medical treatment due to financial difficulties," Liang
said.
(China Daily June 8, 2007)