Report 2: June 4, 2008, Wednesday
Chengdu Mental Health Professionals: Ready to Serve
On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to offer clinical training to 120 mental health professionals from the Sichuan University West China Hospital in Chengdu, located 1,000 miles west of Shanghai.
With over 4,000 beds, this is China’s largest hospital and, according to staff, perhaps Asia’s largest hospital. The psychiatric department consists of 300 beds, as well as a huge outpatient center. The hospital is treating refugees who were injured and has also opened two mobile clinics (“field units”) near where the refugees are housed. The clinics include mental health teams that consist of a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a social worker, and a government emergency response worker. Dr. Yang, director of West China Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry, and her staff believe they have only begun to scratch the surface of mental health needs, and she would like her staff to expand their clinics into other refugee areas. She is hopeful that training offered by me and others can help equip them to do so more effectively.
Dr. Yang pointed out that there are many international volunteer agencies now in the Chengdu area, including some trying to address mental health needs. She is working to help ensure good coordination efforts and the assurance of quality care. Dr. Yang is preparing for the time when various international agencies pull out of the disaster areas. She hopes they can be ready by then to systematically cover at least a major portion of the refugees’ mental health needs. She also sees this as a time to demonstrate the effectiveness of community-based mental health services, which she hopes may have a shaping influence on China’s national mental health policy. China, like the U.S., tends to rely more on inpatient care rather than developing less expensive and more effective community services.
In the training sessions, I shared my experiences in connecting the pre-existing faith or spirituality of the patient as a potential resource for clinical improvement. We had a genuinely open discussion among these highly qualified and caring mental health professionals about the role of patients’ spirituality and faith, especially in dealing with times of great trauma following the tragic earthquake in China.
Dr Yang is to the right of Dr. Kelly, and this is a case
conference with her top staff. |
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