RESEARCH ARTICLE Unlocking Patients with Mental Disorders Who Were in Restraints at Home: A National Follow-Up Study of China’s New Public Mental Health Initiatives

Background In 2005, China implemented a demonstration program known as “686 ” to scale-up nation-wide basic mental health services designed to improve access to evidence-based care and to promote human rights for people with severe mental disorders. As part of the 686 Pro-gram, teams “unlocked ” and provided continuous mental health care to people with severe mental disorders who were found in restraints and largely untreated in their family homes. We implemented a nation-wide two-stage follow-up study to measure the effectiveness and sustainability of the “unlocking and treatment ” intervention and its impact on the well-being of patients ’ families. Methods 266 patients unlocked from 2005 in “686 ” demonstration sites across China were recruited in Stage One of the study in 2009. In 2012, 230 of the 266 cases were re-interviewed (the Stage Two study). Outcome measures included the patient medication adherence and so-cial functioning, family burden ratings, and relocking rate. We utilized pre-post tests to ana