Preschool Children Attacked in China

Recently in China there has been a spree of violent attacks on school children. Most recently 5 preschoolers were hit with a hammer before the instigator started himself on fire. In the New York Times article, “Chinese Preschoolers Hurt in New Attack” (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/world/asia/01china.html?ref=world ) Michael Wines reports that mental illness is largely ignored in China. He says, “In June in the British medical journal The Lancet, estimated that 91 percent of the 173 million Chinese adults that are believed to suffer mental problems never receive professional help.” On the other hand, the gunman of the Von Maur shootings in Omaha in 2007 was a ward of the state. He had been through many facilities meant to help the mentally ill provided by the state and still not received the care he needed.
When families are unable to provide for themselves, does the state have a role to step in and provide services like counseling and rehabilitation? Who is to determine when a family is unfit to provide for themselves? What responsibility does the state have to provide resources for the mental health of its citizens? Mental health and community perception and involvement are related. A group of mentally and physically healthy people are better equipped to address the challenges of living in a community. It is important for everyone that the mentally unstable receive care, not only because they could become victims of violent attacks, but also because it is unsupportive of justice to ignore the suffering of others.
Addressing mental illness can help a community avoid problems and make them more capable of addressing the problems there are. What are effective types of care that the state could provide? How would they differ culturally? Is supporting access to effective mental health resources a legitimate way of addressing societal problems and human rights? In some places, one could argue that widening education opportunities is a great resource the state could provide to meet these aims. In societies were women are less educated, like Afghanistan, there is often more instability and violence. Educating women and improving schools are ways to support good mental health that so benefits society.