The mainland's first mental-health law may be passed this year, but lawyers and activists are urging the government to conduct proper public consultation before passing a draft version that they call 'flawed' and 'dangerous'.
A mental health law has been on the country's legislative agenda since 1985, and more than 20 drafts have been discussed and rejected. But the latest draft has finally made it to the consultation stage, one of the key drafters, Liu Xiehe of Sichuan University, was quoted as saying in a report published yesterday by the Guangdong-based newspaper Southern Rural Village.
National People's Congress Standing Committee chairman Wu Bangguo said in March that the Mental Health Law would be tabled during this legislative year, prompting hopes that the much-anticipated legislation would finally become reality. Mental health patients have been making headlines with increasing frequency in recent years, often for very different reasons but all highlighting the serious flaws in the current mental-health system. On one end are reports of mental-health patients on random killing sprees; on the other end are reports of mentally sound people being thrown illegally into mental hospitals.
A mental-health survey released last week by Michael Phillips of Beijing Hui Long Guan Hospital revealed that about 173 million adults in China suffered from some type of mental disorder, of whom 158 million - or 91 per cent - have never sought professional help. The government continues to cite a figure of 16 million cases of severe mental illness - which has not been updated since 1993.
'Society's apathy towards mental-health patients leads to discrimination, which in turn leads to a great shortage of resources for dealing with mental health. The lack of resources then feeds into further ignorance and apathy, and room for exploitation in the system,' said Shenzhen-based lawyer Huang Xuetao .
A lack of funds was the suspected reason for the government's procrastination in tabling the draft law. One expert estimated that the government will have to commit at least 3 billion yuan (HK$3.4 billion) in the next three to five years to finance all mental patients' treatments, according to Southern Rural Village.
