Opinion | China's new mental health law to make it harder for authorities to silence petitioners

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More than 9 per cent of Xinjiang's population live with mental illness, a top doctor in Urumqi (above) has said. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Published: 1:12pm, 1 May 2013Updated: 4:13am, 29 Aug 2013

The director of Xinjiang's largest mental health institution has welcomed a new law, which went into effect on Wednesday, banning involuntary inpatient treatment for many people deemed mentally ill.

"Seventy to 80 per cent of the patients have been forcibly admitted to the hospital," said Xu Xiangdong, director of the Fourth People's Hospital in the regional capital Urumqi, the Yaxin online news portal reported on Monday.

"Because of this increased consideration for patients' rights, [the figures] will change fundamentally," he said, adding that it would put an end to frequent episodes of people being wrongfully declared mentally ill.

The new law, which has been debated for a quarter of a century, is meant to crack down on local authorities aiming to silence petitioners and troublemakers by arbitrarily declaring them mentally ill and locking them up in mental health wards.

Under the law, patients must first give their consent to being hospitalised, except in cases in which they could harm themselves or others.

If patients are still forcibly confined, they or their guardians have the right to seek a second opinion. Forced hospitalisations for reasons other than severe mental illness are banned.