ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to provide the background of China’s mental health services and the broader political-legal system in general that situates the Mental Health Law. The institutional components of legal systems such as the courts and lawyers resumed operating and acquired official support and acknowledgement. The current mental health system in China is Western in style. Psychiatric research supports this policy priority. While the inadequate investment is echoed in most studies about China’s mental health system, lack of coordination receives less attention. Psychiatrists have used the large number of undertreated patients and their perceived harm or risk to disturb social stability in advocating for their professional status and public investment. For decades, psychiatrists and policymakers have acknowledged its importance, but the reality remains that for most Chinese people ‘the only form of service patients and their family could receive is the institutionalised treatment and care’.
