Mental health services are in great demand in China, but access to them is still difficult, according to China's first blue paper on the mental health of its citizens.
Although 88 percent of interviewees believed mental health work is important, 74 percent of them said it was not easy to get consultations in China, read the Report on National Mental Health Development in China (2017-2018), People's Daily reported Sunday.
The blue paper, which is based on major surveys on mental health carried out over the past three years, was released Friday by the Institute of Psychology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
According to the report, only 12 percent of interviewees felt they "do not have severe mental health problems," while 40 percent admitted they are not sure about it. Around 48 percent of them believed "nowadays people in society suffer severe mental health problems."
The blue paper also found that the mental health situation has been worsening among teachers. The psychological situation of doctors and nurses are worse than the country's average level, and more than half of employees in the banking industry suffer from poor mental health.
Non-rural residents in China have an overall better mental state than their rural counterparts, said the report, the Guangming Daily reported Saturday.
There are currently only 33,400 psychiatrists, 6,000 psychotherapists and less than 30,000 psychological consultants in China. According to the World Health Organization's standard, 1.3 million more psychological consultants were needed in China, Beijing Youth Daily reported in September 2018.
