China wakes up to its mental-health problems

LAST year Li Tian (not her real name) spent a month in a mental hospital. She has suffered from depression for years, but was not particularly low or anxious at the time. It was just that world leaders were preparing to gather in Hangzhou, the eastern city where she lives, for a G20 summit. Ms Li manages her illness with medication, but the authorities have it on record that she can be “unstable” (their evidence: she spent three months in a psychiatric hospital with postnatal depression some years ago). The government did not want any public outburst to mar what it saw as a hugely important event. So “someone from the community” visited her father, Ms Li says, and “suggested” that she check in to a psychiatric facility. Sufferers are still routinely treated as a danger to society.

Ms Li is relatively lucky. Most people with mental disorders in China never receive treatment. There is often a stigma attached to such ailments. Some think that people with psychiatric conditions are possessed by evil spirits. Many see mental disorders as a sign of weakness, and regard them as socially contagious: a relative of someone with a serious disorder may find it hard to marry. Families sometimes have their kin treated far away to hide the “shame” of their condition, or keep them hidden at home. Even many medical students worry that those working with psychiatric patients risk catching their disease, says Xu Ni of “It Gets Brighter”, a mental-health NGO in Beijing.