Community and Culture: a Chinese Model of Community Care for the Mentally Ill

Abstract

Although psychiatric hospitals are thought to be the main focus of care for the mentally ill, China has not inherited the large asylums that were, and are, such a feature in the West. China has developed her own model of community care for the mentally ill, which is coherent with what are seen to be the available resources and fits into existing structures of social organisation. The elements in this model include small neighbourhood workstations, factory clinic liaison work, 'home beds' and neighbourhood care units. So far alternative accommodation schemes appear to have no part to play in the model. The reasons for this are discussed. However, while the Chinese model of community care for the mentally ill is quite well articulated, there appear to be major problems in ensuring its implementation.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Allodi, F. & Dukstza, J. (1978) Psychiatric services in China: or Mao versus Freud . Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal, 23:6, 361-367.

Bulmer, Martin (1987) The Social Basis of Community Care. London: Allen & Unwin.

Cohen, David (1988) Forgotten Millions: The Treatment of the Mentally Ill. A Global Perspective. London: Paladin.

Dear, M. (1984) Health services planning: searching for solutions in well defined places. In Planning and Analysis in Health Care Systems (ed. M. Clarke ). London: Pion Ltd.

Kao, John J. (1979) Three Millennia of Chinese Psychiatry. New York Institute for Advanced Research in Asian Science and Medicine Monograph Series.

Leung, Sophia (1978) Chinese approach to mental hcalth service. Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal, 23, 354-359.

Liao Yukuang (1987) A Review of Civil Affairs Work. Human University Press (in Chinese).

Lin, Tsung-Yi & Eisenberg, David (1985) Mental Health Planning for One Billion People. Vancouver: University of British Columbia.

LU Yichuang (1978) The collective approach to psychiatric practice in the People's Republic of China. Social Problems, 26, 2-14.

10.

Jiang Zuoning (1988) Community psychiatry in China: organization and characteristics. International Journal of Mental Health, 16:3, 30-42.

11.

Pearson, Veronica (1989) Making a virtue of necessity: hospital and community care for the mentally ill in China. International Social Work . 32, 53-63.

12.

Pearson, Veronica (1991) The development of modern psychiatric services in China 1898-1949. History of Psychiatry, 2, 133-147.

13.

Perring, Christina , Twigg, Julia & Atkin, Karl (1990) Families caring for People Diagnosed as Mentally Ill. The Literature Re-examined. London: HMSO.

14.

Pinker, Robert (1982) Minority report. In Social Workers: Their Roles and Tasks (ed. Peter Barclay). London: Bedford Square Press.

15.

Scull, Andrew (1984) Decarceration: Community Treatment and the Deviant- A Radical View (2nd ed.). Cambridge : Polity Press.

16.

Sedgwick, Peter (1982) Psycho Politics. New York: Harper and Row.

17.

Shen Yucun (1983) Community mental health care within primary care in the People's Republic of China: the home care program in the Beijing countryside . International Journal of Mental Health, 12:3, 123-131.

18.

Shen Yucun (1985) Community mental health home care program, Haidian District in the suburbs of Beijing. In Psychiatry. The State of the Art: Epidemiology and Community Psychiatry, Vol. 7. New York: Plenum Press, 423-428.

19.

Talbot, P.S. (1978) Chinese approach to mental health. Australasian Nurses Journal, 7:10, 31-32.

20.

Wu, Cheng-I (1959) New China's achievement in psychiatry. Collection of Theses on Achievements in the Medical Sciences in Commemoration of the Tenth National Foundation Day of China. Vol. 2, Beijing. Translated by US Joint Publications Research Service, No. 14, 829, p.601.

21.

Xia Zhenyi, Yan Heqin , & Wang Changhua (1987) Mental health care in Shanghai . International Journal of Mental Health, 16:3, 81-85.

22.

Yao Chiyu (1985) Mental health in primary care in Yantai prefecture: a rural model. In Mental Health Planning for One Billion People (eds. Tsung-yi Lin & D. Eisenberg). Vancouver: University of British Columbia.