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Integrating mental health into primary care: the policy maker's perspective and experience in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Yu Xin
Affiliation:
Peking University Institute of Mental Health, China, email [email protected]
Liu Jin
Affiliation:
Peking University Institute of Mental Health, China, email [email protected]
Ma Hong
Affiliation:
Peking University Institute of Mental Health, China, email [email protected]
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In China, ‘community’ was an alien word. Many people used to live in dormitories (Danwei), to which they were assigned by government according to their work units. ‘Dormitory form’ community was closely linked to where people worked, and thus administration and supervision were simple, as was the provision of health services. In each Danwei, a clinic provided basic healthcare not only for its employees but also for the other residents of the dormitory. The old primary care service was based on this. In fact, the ‘golden age’ of community mental healthcare was at that time, when psychiatric hospitals extended their service to communities via the Danwei's clinics in the cities and via ‘barefoot doctors’ in the rural areas. Home beds, occupational therapy stations and shelter factories were set up in some cities and mobile mental health teams played important roles in the villages. Although this did not really represent the ‘integration’ of mental health into primary care, it was a good example of maximising the utilisation of the very limited mental health resources by stretching the psychiatric service, using administrative power, and mobilising family members (Shen et al, 1990; Zhang & Yan, 1990; Zhang, 1999).

Type
Thematic Paper - Mental Health Services in Primary Care
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2010

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