Wu Yuanhong, a man suffering from schizophrenia in China's southeastern Jiangxi Province, was forced by his mother to live in a small metal cage for 11 years after he beat a young boy to death.
Reports of Wu's dire situation surfaced in Chinese media last May, accompanied by images of the 42-year old sitting in the cage in his underwear, his feet shackled by a heavy chain.
Cases similar to Wu are not unheard of in China. Work pressure, the breakdown of traditional family structures, and other aspects of China's rapid modernization have brought an increase in psychological stress to the population.
Around 173 million Chinese suffer from a mental disorder, according to a 2009 study published in British medical journal The Lancet. But there are only 20,000 psychiatrists, equaling 1.5 for each 100,000 people, or a tenth of the ratio in the United States.
Professor Michael Phillips, director of the Shanghai Mental Health Center at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, estimated that only 5% of people who currently have a mental illness in China have received psychiatric care from a professional.
Click on the link below to read the full article
Category(s):Mental Health in Asia
Source material from CNN
