To delineate the evolutionary trajectory of China’s mental health policies from 2001 to 2025 and to further explore the underlying driving forces behind this evolution.
Taking 298 policy documents as the research object, a “three-stage independent latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) + cosine similarity + Sankey diagram” analytical framework was constructed to identify the key focus areas and evolutionary pathways of mental health work across three stages, combined with a literature review to analyze the driving factors of policy change.
A total of 7, 6, and 4 latent topics were extracted from the three stages, respectively. The policies exhibited a transition from system exploration to legal standardization and then to psychological services. The driving forces behind policy changes primarily stemmed from multiple dimensions, including resource allocation, institutional changes, public events, and social demands.
Over the past 25 years, China’s mental health policy has undergone a paradigm shift from disease treatment to social psychological services. Resource allocation (e.g., the 686 Program, professional institution construction) directly gave rise to early policy themes. Major institutional events (the enactment of the Mental Health Law, the elevation of mental health to a national strategy)promoted the formation of legal standardization and social psychological service themes. Public events (SARS, the Wenchuan earthquake)catalyzed the transformation of service models. Changes in social demands (the shift from focusing on the management and control of severe mental disorders to the promotion of mental health for the entire population) constituted the most fundamental driving force.
| 科 Family | 属数 Number of genus | 种数 Number of species | 占总种数比例 Percentage of total species (%) | 属 Genus | 种数 Number of species | 占总种数比例 Percentage of total species (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 鹅膏菌科Amanitaceae | 2 | 11 | 5.26 | 鹅膏菌属 Amanita | 10 | 4.78 |
| 小菇科 Mycenaceae | 2 | 12 | 5.74 | 丝盖伞属 Inocybe | 5 | 2.39 |
| 多孔菌科 Polyporaceae | 8 | 14 | 6.70 | 蜡蘑属 Laccaria | 5 | 2.39 |
| 红菇科 Russulaceae | 3 | 23 | 11.00 | 小皮伞属 Marasmius | 6 | 2.87 |
| 小菇属 Mycena | 11 | 5.26 | ||||
| 光柄菇属 Pluteus | 5 | 2.39 | ||||
| 红菇属 Russula | 17 | 8.13 | ||||
| 栓菌属 Trametes | 5 | 2.39 |