You are falling short of your 'crazy quota', Zhengzhou officials warned
Zhengzhou administrative divisions failed to hit mental illness reporting targets
A provincial capital in central China has informed its administrative divisions that they have failed to fulfil their quotas for reporting cases of mentally ill residents.
A document leaked from the Department of Health of Zhengzhou, the capital of China’s third most populous province Henan, showed that sub-districts were required to report at least two cases of grave mental illness for every 1,000 residents.
“The requirement is too high”, Huang Linlin, a health worker at the Linke sub-district, told Southern Metropolis Daily. “We have registered 12 patients at the moment. According to the requirements, our target is 71.”
Linke is part of the Jinshui district, which has been tasked to identify 2,023 mentally ill people among its one million residents.
The sub-district’s struggle to find enough mentally ill residents reflects a push to improve psychiatric healthcare after the introduction of China’s first mental health law in May.
The law requires all full-service hospitals to set up psychiatric departments in an effort to make up for previous disregard for mental health services. The law also ended involuntary treatment of mentally ill patients.