Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    AFTER sacrificing his career to take care of his mentally ill daughter for 26 years, Chen Qiang said his daughter is very lucky to be in Shenzhen.

    “She received help and attention from every side of society and has recovered very well,” Chen said at an event in Longhua yesterday to mark the World Mental Health Day, which falls on today.

    “She was allowed to stay at home and receive treatment from community mental health workers after being diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 13, she was accepted by the same school which she went to before she became ill, she received professional help at the Dandelion Club in Luohu, which helped her return to the society, and she is accepted by her co-workers and was even promoted to higher positions at her workplace.”

    Aged 39, Chen Huan, with a happy face, agreed with his father. She said she became one of the first batch of members of the Dandelion Club, where many trainings were made specifically for her.

    Chen Huan’s story shows the growing government attention to the mentally ill in Shenzhen, which has the highest rate of adult mental illness out of any city in China, according to a survey performed by Kangning Hospital. Twenty-one percent of Shenzhen residents above 18 suffer from mental disorders, a rate 0.19 percent higher than the national average, the survey showed. Roughly 1.4 percent of Shenzhen residents suffer serious mental problems, the highest among Chinese cities.

    The survey estimated that there are at least 150,000 people in Shenzhen that are high-risk psychiatric patients, but only about 16,000 have registered with the city’s mental health management system since it was launched in 2008.

    “Shenzhen is an immigration city where a high percentage of residents are young and under great work pressure,” said Liu Tiebang, president of Kangning Hospital. “Psychiatric patients and their families are less willing to face their problems than patients suffering other kinds of health problems as bias against the mentally ill is common in our society.”

    Giving growing attention to the mentally ill, the Shenzhen city government has been offering subsidies to improve mental health services especially at the community level and has initiated projects to make psychological consultation more accessible.

    The government invested 30 million yuan (US$4.48 million) to help the mentally ill last year, offering a 300-yuan monthly subsidy to each psychiatric patient. It also passed a law earlier this year to offer subsidies of up to 5,000 yuan to those who take care of psychiatric patients. The city has also opened nine hotlines to offer mental health consultation and equipped every community clinic in the city with psychiatric services.

    The government is building a branch of Kangning Hospital in Pingshan New Area, which is expected to be completed in 2018 and will supply 800 psychiatric beds, to alleviate the pressure on Kangning Hospital, the only hospital dedicated to helping psychiatric patients in the city.

    “Aside from government efforts, I hope the public will show more understanding to the mentally ill,” said Chen Qiang. “Less discrimination will help psychiatric patients recover better.”