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China reaches out to the mentally-impaired

Xinhua, June 18, 2015 Adjust font size:

China has promised better treatment of mental illness and to expand medical aid to more patients, many of whom have been left to their own devices.

China had 4.3 million severely mentally-impaired patients on official record at the end of 2014. More than 55 percent of them live in poverty.

A 2015-2020 plan for mental health work set a goal of more than 80 percent of people with severe mental illnesses in "management" by 2020, with treatment covering at least 80 percent of schizophrenia cases.

"Accidents resulting from such patients, especially fatal ones, should drop obviously, and patients responsible for such accidents will receive timely, forced if necessary, treatment, in accordance with the law," it said.

Citing depression, autism and dementia as key targets, the document noted that eligible patients with economic difficulties will be financially supported.

The plan also encouraged health institutes to set up psychology clinics and strengthen staff training, raising the projected number of doctors specializing in mental disorders to 40,000 by 2020.

Calling on coordinated effort from grassroots health works, police and government officials, the plan urges to explore effective measures to prevent and treat mental illnesses in general while setting up rehab centers and a green channel to take in patients who are dangerous or have committed accidents or crimes and give them treatments. Endi