A Guangzhou hospital is preparing to treat vagrant mental patients as new detailed regulations on vagrants are expected to exclude mental patients from vagrant aid centers, the Information Times reported.

The details, to be unveiled soon, are expected to stipulate that vagrant aid centers should not accept mental patients. Vagrant mental patients can apply for aid only after they have been treated in mental hospitals and recovered.

The mental hospital under the Guangzhou Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau has begun to accommodate vagrant mental patients, according to the Information Times. It has admitted 51 vagrant mental patients sent from aid centers since Aug. 13.

The hospital has set up a temporary zone with 50 beds to accommodate vagrant mental patients since its superior asked it to prepare for treating these patients, said a senior official at the hospital.

Treating vagrant mental patients was much more difficult than treating ordinary mental patients, because nobody knew their disease histories, said a doctor with the hospital.

At first, only six of the 51 patients could speak their names, while most were very hostile toward the medical staff. However, their conditions had improved after two weeks' treatment, he said.

The hospital would soon set up an office to help patients find their homes, said the official. Once a patient was able to speak his or her hometown, the hospital would contact the patient's relatives and help them take the patient back.

Most of the patients want to go home when they recover. However, the hospital is afraid some patients might be unable to go home, if their relatives do not want them, or if the patients are deaf, dumb, or mentally retarded.

There are more than 200 vagrant mental patients in Guangzhou and the hospital plans to assign 500 beds for vagrant mental patients before May 1, 2004.

The cost of treating patients would come from the Red Cross and social donations.

(Shenzhen Daily September 8, 2003)