Helping with mental health problems on the mainland

HK Opinion
H03 China Daily Hong Kong Edition Victor Fung Keung
2012-06-26

Helping with mental health problems on the mainland

The Ministry of Health in early June issued a draft plan, which will require companies with more than 1,000 employees to recruit a psychologist to improve mental health of staff. The ministry is currently collecting feedback on this proposal and others. The draft plan also calls for major hospitals to set up a psychiatry department as the first step to build up a more comprehensive mental health services network across the country.

About 100 million people on the mainland suffer from various kinds of mental illnesses. There are only 20,000 licensed psychiatrists all across China. It is estimated that 70 percent of mental patients do not receive effective, adequate treatment.

Hong Kong can jump to the rescue in this regard. The city has about 300 psychiatrists working in government hospitals (excluding another 60 private practitioners). The total figure roughly equivalent to 0.44 psychiatrists per 10,000 people, compared to the mainland’s 0.00015 per 10,000 residents. Hong Kong also has about 2,000 psychiatric nurses and 100 clinical psychologists working in government hospitals and outpatient clinics alone.

Apart from government and private hospitals, non-governmental organizations such as the Mental Health Association of Hong Kong, New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association (NLPRA) and Caritas Hong Kong, also offer mental health rehabilitation services. Experts from government and non-governmental organizations can provide services to their counterparts on the mainland.

Hong Kong psychiatrists could hold conferences with their mainland colleagues and train para-medical specialists in areas of psychiatry area. The NGOs in Hong Kong, such as NLPRA, can provide training for mainland medical and psychiatric social workers and administrators. The training could cover such areas as operating rehabilitation services for recovering mental patients.

Money doesn’t seem to be an issue, as the Ministry of Health will ask major cities to provide funds to improve mental health services. The ministry calls the mental health services development on the mainland “an important social issue”.

Among the 100 million people on the mainland who suffer from mental illness, 16 million are afflicted with “severe mental diseases” and the services offered in mainland cities are “far from enough”, according to the Ministry of Health. Serious sicknesses include schizophrenia and dementia. Less severe illnesses include depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder.

As China’s economy has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, competition for good jobs and pressure to keep private businesses running have increased in tandem. It should surprise nobody that insomnia, anxiety and depression cases have mushroomed (anxiety and depression are less-severe mental illnesses). In a nutshell, life on the mainland for most people has become more stressful as compared to the “good old socialist days” in the 1970s and 1980s.

Hong Kong people and psychiatric professionals are ready to help, as we treat mainland Chinese our blood brothers and sisters. Moreover, such a transfer of knowledge and training will strengthen Hong Kong’s position as China’s window of the world, coming from a place where psychiatric services are relatively advanced.

Mentally speaking, we are healthier than our compatriots on the mainland. According to a University of Hong Kong survey done in May 2012, Hong Kong citizens are “more mentally healthy than people in neighboring countries and cities.” The report said local people have a score of 53.5 on the mental health scale, while their counterparts in neighboring countries and cities register scales between 49.5 and 51.1 (the higher the score, the healthier the people).

The financial tsunami in 2008 and 2009 resulted in the number of mental patients in Hong Kong surging to 155,000 in 2009 from 125,000 in 2005. But there is nothing to be ashamed of. Stress is part of life, which may lead to anxiety and depression for some. In the Hong Kong University survey mentioned above, the top three sources of stress are “heavier workload”, “financial situation worsening” and “health problem of a family member”. These factors, no doubt, also apply to most people on the mainland.

Let us start the ball rolling. Hong Kong psychiatry experts and social workers: let us go to the mainland and offer help!

The author is director of the MA program in international journalism at Hong Kong Baptist University.