Local people recovering from mental illness or whose condition is stable will soon be able to receive rehabilitation treatment close to home.

Caring centers offering follow-up services are to be established in all the city's 18 districts and Chongming County within three years and then in some 300 subdistricts all over the city.

The city has about 160,000 registered mental health patients, including 1,653 with a history of violence. Experts estimate there are 200,000 people with mental diseases and disorders in the city, but its 42 mental health facilities have only admitted 11,000 patients due to limited medical recourses.

'We decided to promote a method called 'social adoption,' which means rehabilitation centers in the community taking the responsibility of caring for patients,' Dr Xiao Zeping, president of the Shanghai Mental Health Center, said yesterday.

The center established the nation's first rehabilitation center providing patients with training and the chance to live a normal life and a place in society. Eleven patients started careers as waiters, a waitress, bakers and a tally clerk two weeks ago.

'Without proper training, a recovered patient still has to stay at home even he or she is under control,' Xiao added. 'It can neither help a patient return to normal life nor shelter the family's burden.'

(Shanghai Daily September 8, 2008)