China's first "mental health care home", which focuses on rehabilitation intervention and prognosis improvement for patients with mental disorders, including schizophrenia, was established at the Shanghai Mental Health Center on Dec 19.

Initiated by the Chinese Red Cross Foundation and supported by Boehringer Ingelheim, the facility is aimed to help patients enhance their disease awareness, eliminate stigma, restore social function, and ultimately enable them to return to a normal social life.

The establishment of the facility not only represents an innovative initiative in the full-cycle mental health disease management model but also serves as an example of multiple stakeholders working together to contribute to the advancement of mental health care in China, said experts.

Organizers of the care home said that the facility is not merely a physical space, but a platform for organized and systematic public welfare activities. Medical workers and volunteers will host a series of rehabilitation activities for patients, including helping patients and their families better understand their conditions, organizing daytime rehabilitation programs, and providing functional recovery training.

Such efforts are aimed to reduce stigma among patients and their families and help them adopt a more positive attitude toward mental disorders. Moreover, for patients with stable conditions, such programs will help enhance their prognosis and social adaptability, and thus support them to be reintegrated into society while alleviating the overall societal burden of mental disorders.

Shao Yang, vice-president of the Shanghai Mental Health Center, said that rehabilitation of schizophrenia patients goes far beyond simply alleviating symptoms. It must also involve the process of restoring social function and improving their quality of life.

"Here at our hospital, we aim to not only provide mental disorder patients with effective treatment but also focus on the recovery of their social functions," Shao said.

"Through carefully designed, systematic rehabilitation programs, we hope that after the patient's symptoms are controlled and alleviated, they can gradually regain the ability to take care of themselves and establish connections with society again," he said.