ABSTRACT
The organisation of psychiatric facilities in China on any scale had to await the arrival of the Communist government in 1949. What is available now is an enormous advance on what was available at that time, but growth in this sector of the health services has been somewhat slower than that in other areas. This probably reflects the relatively low priority allotted to mental illness in a country which has successfully attempted to wipe out an enormous burden of infectious and parasitic disease. Mental illness also appears to carry a stigma, as it does in the West, although those engaged in treatment go to considerable lengths to reeducate patients’ relatives and work-mates, and ensure that jobs are kept open. There may also be a real difference in the incidence and prevalence of disease between China and the West, thus requiring fewer facilities. Writers who have discussed the subject appear to conclude that the incidence and prevalence of mental illness is much lower in China than in the West.
