Shanghai citizens quizzed on friends' mental health
Does your neighbour smash objects, or speak in riddles? If yes, under a Shanghai-wide government survey, they could be dubbed mentally unfit
A large-scale psychiatric survey of Shanghai's 23 million residents, which encourages people to report anyone with "strange behaviour", has aroused public concern and controversy.
Municipal health authorities issued an order in August to community health centres across the city instructing them to poll local residents about the people around them, to determine who might have a mental illness.
The order did not say when the survey would begin or end, but mental health workers hope to identify potentially unstable individuals with an 11-question survey that quizzes people about their neighbours.
Questions include whether anyone the respondent knows has ever been confined to his home because of abnormal behaviour, whether there is anyone who often fights with others or smashes objects, whether people speak in riddles, whether they speak or laugh to themselves or show odd facial expressions, and whether anyone believes that people are plotting against him.
If a person answers "yes" to any of the questions, the relevant neighbours' name, gender and address must be given, and that person will be marked as possibly having a mental disorder.
Health authorities will refer cases to the nearest branch of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. A person may then undergo a hospital diagnosis.