Principles and Recommendations

This article presents the need for mental health transfor- mation both in the United States and in China and offers principles and recommendations for reform tailored to China's mental health system. Relevant social and historical factors unique to China - such as rapid economic expansion and industrialization/urbanization and the nascent status of mental health services - are noted. Western mental health sys- tem models - including over-reliance on inpatient care and subsequent deinstitutionalization , as well as a pervasive and extreme focus on self- are critiqued as unhelpful for China. Principles and recommendations for building an effective Chinese mental health care system are pre- sented. For instance, many countries are finding that intensive , flexible community care enables people with serious mental illness to recover their ability to function well with job , school , and family. China 's re- sources and potentials for innovative community care are explored. Policymakers are encouraged to avoid the institutionalization and self- focused aspects of Western psychiatric care and , instead , build a com- munity-based mental health system. This approach , to which the West is beginning to turn, is both less costly and more effective. China is fortu-