Canadian psychiatrist continues suicide-prevention campaign

By He Jianwei

Suicide is among the top five causes of death in China, where most people refuse to see a doctor about their psychological problems, Canadian psychiatrist Michael Phillips said last Sunday at a talk titled “Raising Awareness about Suicide in China.

Michael Phillips (second from left) is one of the first foreigners to study suicide in China. CFP Photo

Phillips, who has been living in China for 25 years, is one of the first foreigners to call attention to suicide as a crucial public health problem. He is currently the executive director of the Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center, which campaigns to reduce the economic and social pressures on both the family and society.

From foreign student to psychiatrist

Phillips was working at the University of Auckland Hospital, in New Zealand, in 1974 when he joined a three-week study tour of China. He was impressed with the country’s “barefoot doctors”: people with basic medical and paramedic training who took served as doctors in rural areas, where city-trained doctors refused to rcate. Phillips thought barefoot doctors played a vital role in public health care.

In 1976 he returned to the country to study Chinese for a year each at the Beijing Language Institute, now Beijing Language and Culture University, and Nanjing University. Afterwards he went to the US to do graduate studies in epidemiology and anthropology.

On his third trip to China in 1985, he applied and was granted permanent residency. His first local job was as psychiatrist at a hospital in Shashi, Hubei province, where he stayed for seven years.