Living in perpetual fear: why discharged psychiatric patients in Hong Kong walk on eggshells and say the system of letting them out needs to be reformed
- About 1,300 people with mental health disorders have been given conditional discharges from psychiatric care facilities, a freedom that comes with host of rules
- While system has benefits, many patients do not know what actions will get them readmitted, while doctors who review cases may err on side of caution, experts say
Hong Kong accountant Wilson Ha Che-wai lived in a state of anxiety for 10 years, worrying that if he ever got into an argument with anyone, he would be sent to a mental hospital.
Diagnosed with schizophrenia and delusional disorder in the 1990s, he spent two months in the psychiatric ward of a Hong Kong public hospital in 2010, after being beaten up in an incident in mainland China.
When he was discharged, he was presented with a list of conditions including mandatory monthly visits to a psychiatrist and taking compulsory medicines. If he violated any of the terms, he faced being readmitted.
Although he was an exemplary patient with a mild condition, never violated the conditions and had no relapses, that conditional discharge status hung over him for a decade.
Apart from having to see the psychiatrist for five minutes every month, his personal freedom was constrained and it affected his mental health too.
“A young man once bumped into me on the street and I fell to the ground,” recalled Ha, now 58. “He didn’t say anything and left. Aware of my conditional discharge status, I could only swallow what I felt at that moment.”
Another time, a man told him off despite having accidentally stepped on Ha’s foot.
“I did nothing,” he said. “What if he resorted to violence and people pointed the finger at me because I had mental illnesses? The medical officer might say I had a relapse.”
