The World Mental Health Day is October 10 annually.
In 1991, the government of Nepal submitted the first proposal to carry out a worldwide campaign, called World Mental Health Day, to deepen people’s understanding of mental diseases and eliminate the bias against mental disease patients. Over a decade since then, quite a number of nations have responded to the proposal and enthusiastically participated in the campaign, taking October 10 as a particular opportunity to disseminate scientific knowledge about mental health. WHO, therefore, accepted this day as World Mental Health Day.
China began to participate in the campaign in 2000. Every October 10, the Chinese Ministry of Health releases a campaign theme and carries out large-scale publicity activities throughout the nation. And various consultations, lectures and free diagnoses, which aim to spread knowledge on mental health and arouse public concern about mental diseases, have become yearly routines. The theme for this year’s World Mental Health Day of China, targeted on children and youth (especially pupils, high school and university students）, is “Sharing the Olympic spirit, improving physical and mental health)”.
So far, mental diseases have become a severe public health and social problem in China, with an overall prevalence of 13.47‰. The amount of patients with serious mental diseases has reached 16 million. Meanwhile, child behavior disorder, students’ mental illness, senile dementia and depression, abuse of drugs, suicide and mental health crisis after major disasters are becoming increasingly challenging. However, as the public lacks adequate knowledge related to mental health and mental diseases, mental patients in China receive little understanding and sympathy from the society and are even treated unfairly and discriminated, therefore, some of them feel deeply humiliated and refuse to integrate into families and society. Deterred by fear of discrimination, many patients reject mental health treatment despite the excruciating agony, and thereby lose their chance of a healthier and happier life.
On March 1, 2007, the Mental Health Ordinance of Beijing was officially put into effect. It provides legal basis and norms for the prevention and treatment of mental diseases as well as the protection of patients’ lawful rights and interests, thus putting the government and health organizations’ management of mental diseases under the rule of law.
In addition, the Beijing municipal government has taken multiple concrete measures to strengthen the mental health undertakings and improve citizens’ physical and mental health. For instance, the popularization of mental science has been brought into the government’s scientific popularization project and the government is constantly absorbing new elements and subjects into mental health education among elementary school and high school students, and education activities aimed at promoting people’s awareness of mental diseases are also being conducted. Moreover, the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau has set up hotlines at An Ding Hospital and Hui Long Guan Hospital to provide free psychological consultancy services to citizens. The hotline of An Ding Hospital is +86 010 58303063, available from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm every working day; that of Hui Long Guan Hospital is +86 010 62716286, available from 6:00 pm to 11:00 pm from Monday to Friday. Specialists are willing to help solve psychological and mental health problems at any time.