The hospital in Beijing
Beijing Chaoyang District Mental Health Service Center is a psychiatric institution for currently 180 patients. The patients are between age 15 and 80 years old. The majority of them suffers from schizophrenia and depression. The other patients were diagnosed with dementia or being retarded in their normal development. The hospital consists of two departments for men and one for women.
The hospital is a private institution financed by subsidies from the government but mainly by the monthly fee of RMB 800 (80 Euro or 100 US$) per patient. This pays for nursing, housing, food and medications for the patients. There is no psychotherapy or occupational therapy for the patients!
Mrs Yan Shu Ting is the head of the hospital. Since the death of her husband in 2004 she is solely responsible for the entire administration. She lives on the hospital premises. Through an article in a magazine an Italian convent learned about us and our project. This convent runs multiple rehabilitation centers for psychically ill people in Italy and has a lot of experience and great competence in this field. The nuns are helping Yan Shu Ting to restructure the hospital. They established a filing system which contains a file for each patient, stating his or her condition and treatment.
The next step will be to put patients together according to their illnesses, i.e. the hospital will be divided into different sections according to the various illnesses. Italian doctors will then come to China to reevaluate the patients and develop new treatment strategies.
