Outlook brighter for China's mentally ill

Posted on February 20th by WAtoday.com.au:

By Nick Miller

There are almost as many Chinese with psychotic mental illness as there are people in Australia.

In that enormous country, where in some areas the mentally ill are still chained to the wall awaiting the local witch doctor, one man bears the load of reforming China's mental health service. And he's using Victoria as the model.

Professor Yu Xin [pictured] grew up in Beijing but spent some post-graduate study time at Melbourne University.

Now, as executive director of Peking University's Institute of Mental Health and president of the Chinese Psychiatric Association, he regularly returns to Melbourne for support in building a new mental health service for one-fifth of the world's population.

To read the entire article, click here.

Photograph courtesy of The University of Melbourne.