An anti-mental depression campaign, focusing on college students,
was started at Beijing University on Monday.
The project was
designed to help college students, who have been suffering
from depression, to get better through both psychological
and medical care.
Li Ningzhong, a
1999 graduate student in finance at Beijing University, is
the initiator of the project, who has been hampered by depression
for more than two years but finally beat the disease down.
"I have been
very depressed in college, and several times the disease nearly
led to my suicide," Li said at the opening ceremony of
the project.
Under a doctor's
care, Li recovered from the disease and restarted his life
again, with an optimistic attitude.
"I have noticed
that there are still many college students who are suffering
from mental depression, and that made me decide to start this
programme," Li said.
The Psychological
Department of Beijing University and Beijing Medical University
gave Li support when he prepared this programme, and mental
disease experts from those two units promised to provide free
consultations for students suffering from depression.
Professor Kang
Chengjun from the Beijing University Hospital said at the
ceremony that more than 60 people suffering from depression
visited him last year, and "most of them have had the
inclination to commit suicide."
Li Ningzhong came
to see Professor Kang last November, soon after two teachers
from Beijing University's Guanghua Business Management School
suspected him of trying to commit suicide by jumping down
from the fourth floor of a student dormitory on campus.
"I just broke
out then, and I felt that I could no longer manage to continue
my life," Li recalled his experiences when he was really
depressed.
After three months
of rehabilitation at the hospital, Li conquered the mental
disease and is happy again.
Professor Chen
Xueshi, a prestigious psychological expert, revealed that
depression has led to more than one-fourth of the suicide
cases in the country in the past decades.
Special research
focusing on mentally ill patients at eight selected universities
during 1991-1995 revealed that the suicide caused by mental
depression is 24 per 100,000 students.
According to their
promotion plan, a series of publicity activities will be launched
at different colleges nationwide with the help of the Ministry
of Education.
The latest news
from the Ministry of Health said in the 10th Five-year Plan
period (2001-05), China will carry out large-scale mental
illness investigations and research nationwide.
(China Daily 04/19/2000)
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