title: A survey of the mental health workforce in Guangdong: implications for policy and workforce planning.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Mental illness is a major contributor to disease burden in China. Guangdong province has a population of over 104 million. This province's health information system is inadequate, especially the mental health workforce and service response. This paper describes a field survey to assess the existing mental health workforce and service capacity in Guangdong.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 125 major service providers in Guangdong were identified with the capacity to treat serious mental illness at all levels of the health system. These services were approached to complete a standardised survey based on the WHO Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The survey identified 8498 mental health workers with 72.5% working in psychiatric hospitals. Service providers reported a treatment rate of 68.8% of a total of 430,000 people registered for treatment of severe mental illness, and only 28.4% of over a million people estimated to be experiencing severe mental illness. An inadequate mental health workforce was cited as a common barrier to treatment access.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Guangdong province has a significant treatment gap for severe mental illness and a shortage in the mental health workforce. The distribution of the mental health workforce and facilities is imbalanced towards hospital care rather than community care.
authors.affiliation: Senior Project Officer, Department of Psychiatry, Asialink, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC, and; Peking University Centre for Psychiatry Research and Training, the University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC, Australia yue.li@unimelb.edu.au.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Director, Guangdong Mental Health Institute, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Fujun
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: Head of Exchange and Cooperation Department, Guangdong Mental Health Institute, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Cailan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.affiliation: Project Manager, Asia Australia Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, International Unit, St. Vincent's Mental Health, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Brigid
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ryan
authors.affiliation: Nossal Institute for Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Grant
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Blashki
authors.affiliation: Cato Professor and Head of Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Everall
authors.affiliation: Healthscope Chair of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Chee
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ng
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000592:standards; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006280:Health Workforce / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D008603:Mental Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000592:standards; D011050:Policy Making; D012040:Regional Health Planning / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Guangdong; mental health; policy; system; workforce