Al Jazeera Covers PILnet Fellow Huang Xuetao’s Work on Mental Illness in China

In a video report on the inadequacies of mental health care in China, where 173 million are estimated to suffer from mental illness and few receive care, Al Jazeera interviewed 2009 PILnet International Fellow Huang Xuetao for her take on the nation’s treatment of the mentally ill. The president and founder of the Equity and Justice Initiative in Shenzhen, she focuses her work on the rights of persons with mental disabilities and on efforts to combat the practice of forced institutionalization.

"Hospitalization of the mentally ill [in China] places all the economic charge on the family," says Ms. Huang in this powerful video. "If the family doesn't have the capacity to pay then they can't send the patient to the hospital for treatment, so many can't receive care, which is one of the systematic defects."

See the full video here.