A free information day on mental illness and suicide was held at Beijing's Ditan Park to mark the fourth World Suicide Day, themed around "with understanding, new hope", on September 10.

Doctors from the Beijing Suicide and Prevention Research Center, under the Beijing Hui Longguan Hospital, forfeited their Sunday leisure time to man the information stalls on the day. The Center has held the information day every year since 2003, the year World Suicide Prevention Day was established.

The event allows the general public to take a test to judge the state of their mental health. They can then discuss the results with a doctor, who can offer advice on how to resolve any mental health issues they or people they know are suffering from.

"I have always felt depressed since I entered college. Maybe the test can pinpoint where my problem lies," said Zhou Wei, a Beijing University of Chemistry sophomore at the information day.

The research centre also created "life green cards" for suicide-prone people, containing their case histories and the phone numbers of all their relatives.

"The card can help the hospital contact patients' relatives in case of emergency," said Han Feng, the volunteer charged with handing out the cards.

As well as free psychological testing by medical experts, the information day also had a special volunteers corner where people could sign up to help at future information days, as well as other activities to help the mentally ill.

"With the suicide rate growing across the world, the public need to pay more attention to this issue, " said Yang Hao, a volunteer from the North China Coal Medical College.

Experts at the information day provided advice on a number of issues, like depression, other mental diseases and adolescent rebellion. Grief counseling was also offered to people who had lost their family members to suicide.

An American psychiatrist called Bi Manli who has worked at the center for more than 20 years said China today places too much emphasis on medical therapy, which largely relies on medication.

"Society is changing too fast and a variety of problems keep emerging, so we need to popularize mental health education at an early stage," Bi Manli said.

She also advised everyone to find their own ways to release the stress of everyday life.

Blogs could help docs in suicide prevention 
 
Psychologists should pay more attention to the Internet as a way to spread information about suicide prevention, and reach out to those who are thinking about taking their own lives, several doctors told a seminar in the city over the weekend.

"Many people now choose to vent their emotions by writing blogs. Sometimes you can discover on the Internet those who are likely to take their own lives and their motives," said Xie Haiguang, a psychological researcher.

"Thus you can figure out a way to prevent them from doing so," Xie told the seminar, which was held to mark World Suicide Prevention Day yesterday.

While it would be impossible for doctors to keep track of all the blogs in China - there are more than 30 million bloggers on the Chinese mainland alone - they could use Google key-word searches to find those who are talking about suicide, and see if the blogger displays any warning signs, doctors said.

"Chinese people favor blogging because they feel it a safe way to vent their emotions. They don't have to appear physically before others or reveal their identities. So what they say on their blog is believable," said Gu Jun, a sociologist at Shanghai University.

Other doctors said a Website should be set up for those who want help with mental problems but are embarrassed to talk with a doctor face to face.

"The Internet can be a very efficient tool that helps doctors in suicide prevention," said Dr Shan Huaihai of the Shanghai Psychological Society.

Shan said the city is currently home to more than 20 suicide prevention organizations, but it doesn't have enough doctors to treat the roughly 600,000 people who need consultation.

According to the International Association for Suicide Prevention, more than 1 million people around the world kill themselves every year, but numbers for Shanghai and China are not available.

The Shanghai Mental Health Center said that around 2 million Chinese people are taken to emergency rooms after attempting suicide every year.

(CRI, Shanghai Daily September 11, 2006)