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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Vincent Ni and Xiaoqian Zhu

Covid forces China to face mental health crisis a long time in the making

A health worker delivers daily necessities to quarantine rooms in a hotel in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province
A health worker delivers daily necessities to quarantine rooms in a hotel in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang province. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock

Since the Covid lockdown in Shanghai began, Hu Bojun has received numerous inquiries about her and her hospital’s counselling services. This month, the US-educated clinical psychologist began facilitating lockdown support groups – in English and Chinese – to clients from “all walks of life”.

“Even people from different socio-economic sectors are now attending [counselling] together … My old clients have been coming back, and there are a lot more new clients as well,” she says, adding that a lot more Chinese people have begun talking to her about their mental stress and loneliness in a time of extreme uncertainty.

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