China accepting that mental illness is a growing concern there

From the Wall Street Journal:

Recent rhetoric in China’s state-run media suggests the government is publicly signing onto the view that rising social imbalances along with insufficient treatment for the mentally ill contributed to a recent spate of attacks on schoolchildren.

A patient rests at a mental hospital in Shanxi province. Premier Wen Jiabao attributed “deeper causes” as a reason for the attacks weeks ago, but many in China’s political elite continued to insist that the incidents were isolated, and could be counteracted by increased security.

An article Tuesday in China Daily, the English-language mouthpiece of the central government, as well as comments made by a ranking health official over the weekend, however, suggests the institutional view is changing.

In an article on government plans to expand treatment for mental-health patients, for example, the newspaper describes the government as “taking urgent steps” to improve care and describes Vice Minister of Health Yin Li as saying “social transformation” has increased pressure and perpetuated the seriousness of mental-health disorders. Yin’s comments came over the weekend at the National Conference on the Comprehensive Management of Public Security.

Recent attacks at schools across China left more than 20 students and adults dead and fueled calls for the government to protect the country’s schoolchildren. Several of the attackers were said to be suffering from mental illness while others were reported to be reeling from financial stress.

Increasing school security was the Communist Party’s initial response to the attacks, but observers soon began citing the country’s socioeconomic imbalances as well as lack of available treatment for the mentally handicapped as contributing factors.

The government launched a nationwide mental-health awareness campaign in February, part of a larger effort that ties reducing social unrest to treating the impaired.

Unlike in much of the West, where mental-health disorders are discussed in the context of treatment and helping a patient function in society, China has traditionally viewed the issue through the lens of “public safety” – China-speak for using the police force to deal with an issue.

That perceived criminalization of mental illnesses helped lend taboo status to such disorders in recent years, with many in China now calling on the government to work to change public perceptions. Official estimates have put the numbers of mentally ill in China today around 100 million – or roughly 7% of the population.

Even as the attacks have abated recently, mental-health treatment remains a lively topic in the media. An article appearing Tuesday on the Shanxi News Net argues that effective treatments should consider the individual rights of mental patients to live with “dignity” and ought to help them to achieve a high quality of life.

Still, as Tian Chenghua of Peking University’s Institute for Psychiatric Research told China Daily, considerable discrimination continues to plague those who seek treatment.