Shanghai Law Service Center, an institution affiliated to the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Civil Affairs, is preparing to set up some 100 branch institutions around the city's communities this year.

These institutions, responsible for legal consultancy for local residents, will take the initiative in the city to provide free psychological consultation services.

In order to equip staff in providing this service, a number of them will receive months of professional psychotherapy training, according to the center.

The latest statistics with the Shanghai Bureau of Civil Affairs said the over-60s in Shanghai account for 18.7 per cent of the total, with one-third living apart from their children.

More than a half of all senior citizens in Shanghai admit that they "often feel lonely," while 20 to 30 per cent said they suffer "frequent anxieties," according to the survey by the Mental Heath Research Institution of the Shanghai-based East China Normal University.

Wu Youmin, director of the center, told China Daily that such special services, which have been launched in more than a dozen pilot communities, have been much welcomed by senior citizens.

According to Wu, an increasing number of urban senior citizens in Shanghai are suffering mental ailments because of a lack of social communication when living apart from their children.

"They often become over suspicious or sometimes jealous," said Wu.

Statistics held by the center, set up in 1998, showed that more than 70 per cent of the senior citizens who visited were not looking for legal consultancy services, but just wanted someone to talk to about their "fussy worries."

In the past, most senior citizens in Shanghai, as in some other cities around the world, have lived with their relatives to whom they could vent their worries. But in recent years, more and more young couples in Shanghai were choosing to live apart from their parents.

(China Daily September 16, 2002)