Mental health worries for China's new unemployed
Updated
China, like the rest of the world, is facing great economic challenges in the coming year such as a slowing economy, a bear market and rising unemployment.
At a recent meeting in Shanghai, local government officials were urged to devise a plan to focus on the mental health of people caught up in the growing financial crisis. Delegates heard that while everyone is talking about stimulus packages, less thought had been given to how people are coping emotionally and mentally.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Professor Yu Xin, executive director of the National Institute of Mental Health at Peking University
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YU: Actually, the economic decline doesn't impact too many health sectors very much. Actually, I think the opposite is increased supply for mental health service, by giving more coverage of the people who are mentally ill, and also to give more support to the psychiatric service institutions.
LAM: So do you think the mental health sector as it is now is prepared for all these people who are possibly likely to need counselling, for instance, people who are out of work?
YU: Well yes, so far the major impact from the economic decline of the global financial crisis influenced the manufacture part in China; a lot of factories along the coastal areas closed and migrant workers go home because they lost their jobs in the cities. And it doesn't influence the financial parts such as the banks and other economic sectors so far, but the migrant workers go back home could be a major problem in their society psychologically.
LAM: But the way the mental health sector is set up now, and particularly in the rural areas which I imagine will be fairly isolating, how do you think those people would cope?
YU: It's a big problem I'm afraid I have to say and the people go back home and in the countryside there's no established mental health service for them. And I think the local governments have to provide some supplies, such as training for new jobs and also some opportunities such as local construction. But also I think for the people who basically have not too many survival skills and not too much support, they also need some help from mental health professionals. And the Chinese government now actually move up to give more support to build up a mental health network, that is to extend the mental health service not from the city, but extend the mental health service to the rural areas and also give out doctors training opportunities to the county level, even lower level general doctors with mental health knowledge, try to help them to cope with the problems they might face in the future.
LAM: I imagine that would be quite a challenge to do virtually overnight, why do you think mental health and mental health sector has been a neglected area in Chinese health services?
YU: Well it's a long story actually. To try to make a long story short, I think the Chinese culture it's tried to hide something, bad things behind the door. So the Chinese actually the Chinese family don't want to expose the bad part to the public and so they basically don't want to look for help, seek for help, particularly from the mental health professionals. They try to solve the problem inside a family, and also a lot of mental health facilities very isolated from mainstream medicine, and not very supported by government in the past. So it's not very well equipped with human resources.
LAM: Has this problem been recognised by the authorities in Beijing and are they doing anything to address this issue?
YU: Yes, actually the whole situation changed five years ago and it's had a lot of improvement and the whole country actually was mobilised and the higher level of government is aware of the importance of mental health. And by initiating some programmes to address the issues raised up in the Chinese situation and the mental health activities, not only from the medical institutions, but also to the community, I think things will be changed, they will improve in the future.
LAM: And do you think that mental health has become an even bigger issue with the economic liberalisation of China?
YU: Better not but in reality it might be.
LAM: So what do you think finally are the key challenges to China trying to build up this quite efficient mental health sector?
YU: The shortage of human resources. I mean, the (lack of ) qualified mental health workers is the big challenge for China because we have a huge demand, we have a huge population and we are facing huge transition of the society and a lot of mental health problems are actually taking place, and for some disorders related to the change of the environment and change of the society, anxiety and depression and alcohol abuse, and eating disorders in young people, particularly young girls, are all going up amazingly.
LAM: And would the training of health workers be a challenge as well, that you have to train thousands presumably, of health workers to cope with the demand?
YU: Yeah of course. Well, I mean last year we had to organise at least 20 to 30 workshops showing the local mental health workers to cope with the challenges, and this year we have to do more. But the thing about China, is it's a huge country with a huge population and it's not enough, so we need to do more.
