Life in Shadows for Mentally Ill in China: 173 Million People with Mental Illness and Few Accessible Services for Them
"The Lancet study estimated that roughly 173 million Chinese suffer from a mental disorder. Despite government efforts to expand insurance coverage, a senior Health Ministry official said last June that in recent years, only 45,000 people had been covered for free outpatient treatment and only 7,000 for free inpatient care because they were either dangerous to society or too impoverished to pay."
I was disturbed by this NY Times article, describing the mental health system in China, or rather the lack thereof. It validates what I already knew anecdotally in a scientific way. As I had imagined, very few people with serious and persistent mental illnesses receive the care they deserve and need, largely in part with their society's inability to come to terms with the reality of mental illness. Denial and shame seems to shroud the issues and developing strategic public policies to deal with this public health problem. Only when the issue reaches catastrophic proportions, do the authorities take action. Tragically in these cases, 8 school children were senselessly murdered by individuals who endured many years without medical treatment and were delusional at the time of the murders.
As strong as the stigma of mental illness may be in American culture, public mental health services exist in nearly in every community. We are nowhere near China's tragic mess where people are routinely hidden from public view and shamed for simply having a mental illness. It is a reminder of how far America has come, and how much more we have to advance.
It seems that society does not care about people who are suffering with an illness by themselves until that person commits an act of violence. Sadly, late is when they do receive a deluge of attention from the authorities.
The stigma not only prevents individuals with mental illness from seeking treatment, but also prevents doctors from specializing in psychiatry. Doctors who train in psychiatry are treated with disdain and ill-regard for their chosen profession, as strange that may seem to us Americans and even Asian Americans. Americans may think there is a strong stigma of mental illness in our culture; however, relative to Chinese culture, America is far more progressive in its view and treatment of mental illness. That is not to say that America's view of mental illness is monolithic. It brings me back to my interview of Dr. Francis Lu, renowned pioneering cultural psychiatrist, who said that while Asian Americans are entering medical school in droves (25%), there is a disproportionately low number entering the field of psychiatry.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/11/world/asia/11psych.html?scp=1&sq=china%20mental%20illness&st=cse
"Life in Shadows for Mentally Ill in China"
By Sharon LaFraniere
New York Times
By Sharon LaFraniere
New York Times
November 10, 2010
I was disturbed by this NY Times article, describing the mental health system in China, or rather the lack thereof. It validates what I already knew anecdotally in a scientific way. As I had imagined, very few people with serious and persistent mental illnesses receive the care they deserve and need, largely in part with their society's inability to come to terms with the reality of mental illness. Denial and shame seems to shroud the issues and developing strategic public policies to deal with this public health problem. Only when the issue reaches catastrophic proportions, do the authorities take action. Tragically in these cases, 8 school children were senselessly murdered by individuals who endured many years without medical treatment and were delusional at the time of the murders.
As strong as the stigma of mental illness may be in American culture, public mental health services exist in nearly in every community. We are nowhere near China's tragic mess where people are routinely hidden from public view and shamed for simply having a mental illness. It is a reminder of how far America has come, and how much more we have to advance.
It seems that society does not care about people who are suffering with an illness by themselves until that person commits an act of violence. Sadly, late is when they do receive a deluge of attention from the authorities.
The stigma not only prevents individuals with mental illness from seeking treatment, but also prevents doctors from specializing in psychiatry. Doctors who train in psychiatry are treated with disdain and ill-regard for their chosen profession, as strange that may seem to us Americans and even Asian Americans. Americans may think there is a strong stigma of mental illness in our culture; however, relative to Chinese culture, America is far more progressive in its view and treatment of mental illness. That is not to say that America's view of mental illness is monolithic. It brings me back to my interview of Dr. Francis Lu, renowned pioneering cultural psychiatrist, who said that while Asian Americans are entering medical school in droves (25%), there is a disproportionately low number entering the field of psychiatry.
posted by Pearl Ji-hyon Park at
1:24 AM
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