Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Community Mental Health in the People’s Republic of China: A Critical Analysis

  • Published:
Community Mental Health Journal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Community mental health has long been the crucial modality in service delivery of mental health services. This paper is an attempt to evaluate community mental health services in the People’s Republic of China. The writer critically argues that community mental health services in the People’s Republic of China still have faced a lot of difficulties such as huge demand but scarce resources, withdrawal of governmental funding in related services, inaccessibility of services to deprived and remote rural areas, political control, high mental health illiteracy and problems in formation of multidisciplinary team. An articulation of community mental health in the China context is also discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Archer J., Gruenberg E. M. (1982). The chronically mentally disabled and deinstitutionalization. Annual Review of Public Health 3:445–468

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bachrach L. (1976). Deinstitutionalization: Analytical Review and Sociological Perspective. U.S. Department of Health Education and Welfare, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Bachrach L. (1978). A conceputalization approach to de-institutionalization. Hospital and Community Psychiatry 29:573–578

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett D. (1979). De-institutionalization in two cultures. Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly 57:516–531

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bowman K. M. (1948). Psychiatry in China. American Journal of Psychiatry 105:70–71

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Caplan R. (1969). Psychiatry and Community in the Nineteenth Century America. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Chin R., Tuan C. H. (1969). Psychological Research in Communist China 1949–1966. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen C. I., Feiner J. S., Huffine C., Moffic H. S., Thompson K. S. (2003). The future of community psychiatry. Community Mental Health Journal 38(5):459–471

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cutler D. L., Bevilacqua J., McFarland B. H. (2003). Four decades of community mental health: A symphony in four movements. Community Mental Health Journal 39(5):381–398

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Drake R. E., Green A. I., Mueser K. T., Goldman H. H. (2003). The history of community mental health treatment and rehabilitation for persons with severe mental illness. Community Mental Health Journal 39(5):427–440

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goldman H., Dixon L. (2004). Forty years of progress in community mental health: The role of evidence-based practices. Administration and Policy in Mental Health 31(5):381–392

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hafner H., Heidner W. (1989). The evaluation of mental health care systems. British Journal of Psychiatry 155:12–17

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ho D. Y. F. (1974). Prevention and treatment of mental illness in the Peoples Republic of China. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 44: 621–636

    Google Scholar 

  • Hui, S.S. & Lau, H. W. (1980). The history of Chinese psychiatry. In K. C., Shum (ed.), Psychiatry, People’s Republic of China. People Hygiene Publishers

  • Kao J. J. (1974). Psychiatry in the Peoples Republic of China: A prospectus. American Journal of Chinese Medicine 2:441–444

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kao J. J. (1979). Three millennia of Chinese psychiatry. Institute for Advanced Research in Asian Science, New York, Y& Medicine Monograph Series

    Google Scholar 

  • Langsely D. G. (1985). Community mental health in the United States. Journal of the Hong Kong Psychiatric Association 5:6–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Leung Y., Miller W., Leung M. (1978). Chinese approach to mental health services. Canadian Psychiatric Association Journal 23:354–380

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lin T.Y. (1985). Mental diseases and psychology in Chinese culture: Characteristics, factors and major issues. In: Tseng W. S., Wu D. W., (eds) Chinese Culture and Mental Health. Academic Press, Orlando, pp. 369–394

    Google Scholar 

  • Luo K., Yu D. (1994). Enterprise-based sheltered workshop in Nanjing: A new model for community rehabilitation of mentally ill workers. British Journal of Psychiatry 165:32–37

    Google Scholar 

  • McCartney J. L. (1926). Neuropsychiatry in China: A preliminary observation. Journal of Chinese Medicine 42: 616

    Google Scholar 

  • Ministry of Civil Affairs (2004). The Recent Development of Mental Health Services in the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The People’s Republic of China: http://www.mca.gov.cn

  • Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Civic Affairs, Ministry of Public Security and Disabled Persons Federation (2002). The Future Plan of Chinese Mental Health Work (2001–2010). The People’s Republic of China: http://www.cma-mh.org/p/lawConsult

  • Munro R. (2002). On the psychiatric abuse of Falun Gong & other dissenters in China: A Reply to Stone, Hickling and Kleinman and Lee. Journal of American Academy of Psychiatry 30(2):126–130

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearson V. (1991). The development of modern psychiatric services in China 1898–1949. History of Psychiatry 11: 133–147

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pearson V. (1992). Community and culture: A Chinese model of community care for the mentally ill. The International Journal of Social Psychiatry 38: 163–178

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pearson V. (1995). Mental Health Care in China: State Polices, Professional Services and Family Responsibilities. Gaskell, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearson V., Phillips M. R. (1994). Psychiatric social work and socialism – problems and potential in China. Social Work 39(3):280–287

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Phillips M. R. (1993). Strategies used by Chinese families in coping with schizophrenia. In: Davis D., Harrell S., (eds) Chinese Families in the 1980s Berkeley and Los Angeles. University of California Press, CA

    Google Scholar 

  • Pumariega A. J., Winters N. C., Huffine C. (2003). The evolution of systems of care for childrens mental health: Forty years of community child and adolescent psychiatry. Community Mental Health Journal 39(5):399–425

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Selden C. C. (1937). The John G., Kerr Hospital for the Insane. Chinese Journal of Medicine 22: 707

    Google Scholar 

  • Shen Y. C. (1985). Community mental health home care programme: Haiden district in the suburb of Beijing. Psychiatry: The State of Art of Epidemiology and Community Psychiatry 7:423–428

    Google Scholar 

  • Spencer J. (1980). To change China: western advisers in China 1620–1960. Penguin, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Thornicroft G., Bebbington P. (1989). De-institutionalization from hospital to service development. British Journal of Psychiatry 155:739–753

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tian W., Pearson V., Wang R., Phillips M. (1994). A brief history of the development of rehabilitation services in China. British Journal of Psychiatry 165:19–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Tucker S. (1983). The Canton Hospital and Medicine in 19th Century China (1835–1990). University Microfilm International, Ann Arbor, MI

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang X. (1994). An integrated system of community services for the rehabilitation of chronic psychiatric patients in China. British Journal of Psychiatry 165:89–95

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang Q., Gong Y., Niu K. (1994). The Yantai model of community care for rural psychiatric patients. British Journal of Psychiatry 165:107–113

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yip K. S. (1989). Compare and contrast the psychiatric treatment model in the Peoples Republic of China and South Australia: Its implications of the Hong Kong Mental Health Practice. Social work in the Australian context: Proceedings of the 21st biennial conference of the Australian association (pp. 122–127). James Cook University of North Queensland, Townsville

  • Yip K. S. (2000a). The community care movement in mental health services: Implications to social work practice. International Social Work 43(1):33–48

    Google Scholar 

  • Yip K.S. (2000b). Have psychiatric services in Hong Kong been impacted by the deinstitutionalization and community care movements. Administration and Policy in Mental Health 27(6):443–449

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Yip K.S. (2004). Political dominance of mental health services in the peoples Republic of China. Administration and Policy in Mental Health 31(6):495–502

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang M., Wang M., Li J., Phillips M.R. (1994). Randomized-control trail of family intervention for 78 1st episode of male schizophrenic patients: An 18 month study in Suzhou, Jiangsu. British Journal of Psychiatry 165:19–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang M., Yan H., Phillips M.R. (1994). Community-based psychiatric rehabilitation in Shanghai: Facilities, services, outcome and cultural specific characteristics. British Journal of Psychiatry 165:70–80

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kam-shing Yip Ph.D..

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Yip, Ks. Community Mental Health in the People’s Republic of China: A Critical Analysis. Community Ment Health J 42, 41–51 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-005-9003-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-005-9003-x

Keywords

Navigation