Schizophrenia: the 'abandoned’ illness
- By Guo Yiming
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail China.org.cn, April 19, 2015
Fear of stigmatization
In China's medical system, mental illnesses, similar to infectious diseases, are all kept on record. Once a patient visits a psychiatrist, his personal details will be put into a system and reported to higher medical institutions all the way up to the National Health and Family Planning Commission.
Out of fear of stigmatization, those with mental disorders often avoid seeking medical treatment in hospitals but resort to feudal superstitions instead, hopelessly missing the best time and opportunities for effective treatment.
To make matters worse, in many rural areas where the concept of carrying on the family line runs deep, people with schizophrenia tend to cover it up and try to get married and have children during the incubation period, making it highly probable that the children also suffer from this genetic disease.
According to China's Marriage Law, people with mental conditions without or with limited capacity for civil conduct are prohibited from getting married and having children. However, this clause remains a mere scrap of paper in rural areas.
Zhou Jingjing, a 28 year-old woman with mental diseases, is now a mother of two boys who, in doctor Wang Zhenyi's words, will almost certainly inherit their mother's disease and are now utterly unaware of it.
Lack of quality treatment
China's public health system is struggling to keep up with the demand in mental health care.
According to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there is only an average of 1.04 beds in hospital psychiatry departments for every 10,000 people, far less than the world average of 4.3.
Moreover, compared with the staggering increase in the number of people suffering from mental disorders, there are only 19,000 certified professional psychiatrists across the country, equaling one for every 842 patients.
A national survey found that there are approximately 173 million people in China suffering from mental diseases, but 90 percent, or 158 million of them, have never received professional treatment.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)