Mental health emergency: 2 per cent of Chinese adolescents suffer from depression
China’s official Xinhua news agency released the data while the National Health Commission presents a three-year plan to deal with rising mental disorders. The issue has come to prominence following a string of violent incidents, but it is also the legacy of the government’s zero-COVID policy.
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Five years after the official start of the COVID-19 pandemic in China, the impact of the Chinese government’s very strict prevention measures is starting to play itself out in terms of mental health issues in children and adolescents
China's National Health Commission (NHC) announced a three-year plan (2025-2027) to tackle gaps in mental health services to address a growing number of problems, particularly among children and adolescents.
The measures include the establishment of a mental health hotline and the creation of regional mental health centres throughout the country.
In addition, the NHC has ordered that outpatient services for mental and sleep disorders must be available in at least one hospital in each prefecture and city by the end of 2025.
Under a three-year national action plan launched in 2023, this year more than 95 per cent of Chinese schools should have a full-time or part-time instructor for mental health education.
Mental health issues have risen to prominence in China after several violent incidents in 2024, including a series of stabbings and two separate cases of vehicle-ramming attacks involving crowds, including one that claimed dozens of lives in Zhuhai.
The World Health Organisation estimates that 54 million people in China suffer from depression and about 41 million from anxiety disorders, out of a population of 1.4 billion people.
The prevalence of depression among teenagers is about 2 per cent, the official Xinhua news agency reported this week, citing Xie Bin, head of the Shanghai Communist Party's Mental Health Centre.
As China's economy slows, job opportunities are more precarious and fewer people are benefiting from the country’s long-running economic growth.
According to experts, the mental health repercussions of these economic pressures are increasing.
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