Reporting on China's mental health surveillance.

Abstract

Countries like the United States have already developed mental health surveillance, extensively covering diagnosis of mental disorders, symptoms, risk factors, and mental health services (1). These data guide Medicare and Medicaid coveragedecisionsanddirectattentiontonewareas,suchas adolescent suicide. In 2012, China’s first National Mental Health Law explicitly stipulated that a mental health surveillancenetworkshouldbeestablished(article24)andthat mental health work plans should be based on surveillance results (article 60). The National System of Basic Information Collection and Analysis for Psychoses, launched in 2011, is the only mentalhealth-themed surveillance system in China. Six severe mental illnesses—schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, delusional disorder, psychotic disorder due to epilepsy, and mental retardation—are reported. Information ondiagnosis,medication,riskofviolence,andhistoryofcrime and violent or disruptive behavior is also collected. However, the surveillance system has at least three major problems. First, the system is a part of the National Continuing Management and Intervention Program for Psychoses (also named 686 Program), which was originally a response to the government’s concern about social harmony and stability (2). This explains why the surveillance focuses only on patients with severe mental illnesses and their violent or socially disruptive behaviors. This surveillance information is shared with public security departments. Second, although data dissemination is a core principle of surveillance, accessing data from the system is extremely difficultinChina.Unlikemonthlyreportingofcommunicable