Chinese Approach to Mental Health Service

Abstract

This paper reviews the health care approaches in the People's Republic of China where life style, political leadership, grass roots health programs and patriotic zeal are a unified endeavour. Certain assumptions underlying North American health practices come into particular focus. Specifically, the Chinese experiences raise doubt about the value of a professionally oriented emphasis in health care and deny the worth of health programs which are not woven into the social, economic, political and ethical activities of society. How effective can our free standing groups of health professionals be in practising prevention, in enlisting public involvement in their own health care and in helping to co-ordinate needed public, private and governmental joint endeavours required for the enhancement of people's health? The Chinese maintain that the key to all health and mental health care advances is social and economic reform, grass roots programs and most importantly, a self-reliance strategy with an intense personal motivation to produce change in one's way of life. Professional responsibility worthy of public trust would be achieved only insofar as professional efforts facilitate these three areas of development. Material for this presentation is drawn from a total of six recent visits to the People's Republic of China and from personal discussions with' representatives of several delegations of health leaders during their Vancouver visits. Programs in the Shanghai Mental Hospital are described along with some reference to an interview with Dr. George Hatem (Ma Hai Teh), the distinguished physician who directed the programs which resulted in the virtual eradication of veneral diseases.