A greater focus on prevention and rehabilitation

The passage of China’s national mental health law on 26 October 2012 by the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) was a milestone event for patients with mental disorders, for the clinicians who treat them, and for the community at large. Prior to the release of the law, several surveys about the law had been conducted with different target groups in different parts of the country. Most of the surveys focused on issues of central concern to psychiatrists – the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders – which are addressed in Chapter III of the law. But, as stated in Article 3 of the law, ‘...mental health work should adhere to the concept of integrating prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation,’ so it is also important to discuss and debate the components of the law that focus on the prevention (Chapter II) and rehabilitation (Chapter IV) of mental disorders. There is much less research about the community-based prevention and rehabilitation of mental disorders than about the treatment of mental disorders, so the suggested options for achieving these goals in the law are, necessarily, largely based on expert opinion, not on scientific research.