THE ROLE OF HUMAN-RIGHTS AND PERSONAL DIGNITY IN THE REHABILITATION OF CHRONIC PSYCHIATRIC-PATIENTS - A RURAL THERAPEUTIC-COMMUNITY IN YANBIAN, JILIN

In 1983 the branch hospital of the Yanbian Community Psychiatric Hospi tal, a rural residential centre for 120 chronic psychiatric patients w ho have no means of financial support, adopted a new treatment philoso phy that emphasised psychosocial rehabilitation and made the protectio n of patients' human rights and respect for their personal dignity the central organising principles for the hospital's treatment programme. From being a boarding facility for chronic psychiatric patients, the hospital became a thriving community. Comparison of the status of the 81 continuously resident schizophrenic patients before and after the p olicy change showed that (a) the proportion who actively participated in agricultural labour increased from 10% in 1982 to 38% in 1990; (b) the proportion who worked at non-agricultural jobs increased from 7% i n 1982 to 22% in 1990; and (c) their mean yearly income increased from 1.67 Rmb in 1982 to 246.70 Rmb in 1990. Moreover, the number of succe ssful suicides among all the patients in the hospital dropped from 13 in 1975-1982 to 1 in 1983-1990. We conclude that the success of psychi atric rehabilitation programmes depends on the extent to which they ad dress the core issues of personal dignity and basic human rights.