China: Finding Peace of Mind (Newsweek)

以前どこかで中国の若者の自殺率が急増していると書いたけれど、やはり精神科への患者数も急増、精神科医・施設が足りない、もしくは費用が高くて入院できないという状態らしい。

China's demand for psychiatric services is soaring. Huilongguan Hospital, China's largest psychiatric facility, reports that its outpatient count has doubled in the past two years...And suicide--the leading cause of death for Chinese between the ages of 15 and 34--has reached an alarming pace, double the U.S. rate per capita..."Two million Chinese try to kill themselves annually, yet almost none of those who survive get psychological treatment at the time."

China's 750 or so state-run mental-health institutions can't keep pace with the rising demand for their services--and are often too costly for the staggering number of patients who lack insurance...And today China has only about 14,000 qualified psychiatrists, "about the same number as France, with 60 million people--compared to China's 1.3 billion."