Mental health & psychiatric care
Continue mental-health care after moving to China
Build a provider-confirmed handoff for records, prescriptions, appointments, payment and urgent fallback before relocating to China or changing cities.
Mental-health care does not transfer automatically when a person enters China, changes cities, changes insurers or moves from a school or employer service to a hospital. The receiving institution controls registration, assessment, record creation, appointment scheduling, prescriptions and referral. The safest administrative plan is to identify a licensed receiving provider before the move, preserve source-labelled clinical records, confirm how any current prescription will be reviewed under Chinese rules, and keep payment and urgent-care routes separate. This guide does not diagnose, assess stability or urgency, select a clinician or treatment, interpret a record, or advise on medicine continuation, dose, substitution, tapering or stopping.
Use this as a practical starting point
Provider procedures can change, so confirm time-sensitive details with the hospital, insurer or service. A licensed professional must make clinical decisions for an individual patient.
At a glance
Key points
- Identify the receiving medical institution, campus, department and appointment route before the existing care relationship ends where possible.
- Keep the original clinical summary, reports, prescriptions and dispensing history with a clearly labelled translation rather than rewriting them.
- A new institution decides what prior information it accepts and what assessment, records or tests are required.
- A foreign or earlier prescription supports handoff but does not authorize dispensing or guarantee the same medicine in China.
- Confirm identity registration, language support, consent, privacy and any supporter role directly with the receiving provider.
- Verify basic and commercial insurance, price and receipt requirements independently of clinical acceptance.
- Ask both providers to document the next appointment, physical-care fallback and responsibility for pending results or records.
- Keep 12356 psychological assistance, routine follow-up, 120 medical emergency and 110 police assistance as separate routes.
Secure a receiving provider before the move
Search for a licensed medical institution with the relevant psychiatric or mental-health service and confirm its Chinese legal name, campus, department and live appointment channel. National service-development documents show expanding psychiatric, psychological and sleep clinics, but they are not a current directory and do not guarantee that a named hospital accepts the patient, foreign passport, language request or specific continuing-care need.
Contact the receiving provider with a short administrative request: existing care, intended arrival date, record format, current prescription documentation, language need and desired appointment type. Do not send a complete sensitive record to an unverified email, marketplace agent or personal messaging account before the institution identifies its intake channel. A provisional reply is not appointment, clinical acceptance, bed confirmation or prescription approval.
- Chinese legal institution name
- Exact campus and department
- Official appointment or intake channel
- Foreign-document and identity route
- Language or interpreter arrangement
- Physical address and urgent fallback
A provider directory listing or email acknowledgement is not a completed clinical handoff.
Build a source-labelled continuity record
Ask the existing provider for a current clinical summary and the records it can lawfully release. Useful administrative fields include the patient's identity, provider and clinician, dates of care, diagnoses as recorded by that provider, relevant reports, current and previous prescriptions, dispensing information, allergies or documented adverse reactions, pending results and planned follow-up. Preserve each original and record who issued it.
Ask the receiving institution which language, translation, seal, digital image or paper format it needs. Label every translation as a translation and keep the original attached. Do not merge counselling notes with hospital records, turn an informal app chat into a medical report, alter a diagnosis, convert medicine instructions or omit the issuing source. The receiving clinician decides what is clinically usable and what belongs in the new record.
- Current provider summary
- Relevant outpatient and inpatient records
- Reports and pending-result list
- Original prescriptions and dispensing history
- Documented allergies or adverse reactions
- Provider and clinician contacts
- Source-labelled translation
- Patient-controlled private inventory
Plan prescription continuity without assuming a refill
Give the receiving clinician the original prescription and medical record and ask which in-person or lawful online route applies. A foreign prescription or earlier Chinese prescription does not compel continuation, replacement or dispensing. The clinician must make the current decision, and the pharmacy performs a separate review. Some medicines are specially controlled and cannot be prescribed through internet diagnosis.
Ask the existing and receiving providers to document their own responsibilities and dates, but do not ask either to guarantee another institution's decision. This page provides no advice on supply quantity, travel buffer, dose, substitution, tapering, stopping or what to do after a missed dose. Questions about importing or exporting medicine also require the relevant customs and regulatory route rather than an assumption based on personal-use packaging.
- Original prescription and package information
- Last documented dispensing event
- Receiving appointment date
- In-person assessment requirement
- Named pharmacy or dispensing route
- Online restriction and physical fallback
- Responsible clinician contact
Do not change a psychiatric medicine or obtain an unofficial substitute while waiting for administrative continuity.
Rebuild identity, consent and privacy controls
Register under the identity document and name format accepted by the receiving institution and provide any previous Chinese hospital number. If a passport changed or two records exist, ask the hospital to correct or link the patient identity rather than opening repeated records under different spellings. A school, employer, insurer or family member's profile does not replace the patient's hospital identity.
Decide who may assist with language, appointments, payment, record collection or clinical communication and ask the institution how each role is documented. A companion, emergency contact or payer is not automatically a medical decision-maker or record recipient. Use minimum-necessary disclosure and a provider-recognized authorization where another person handles a defined task.
- Accepted passport or identity document
- Consistent name order and spelling
- Existing Chinese hospital numbers
- Patient contact details
- Interpreter or language plan
- Task-specific supporter authorization
- Private record-sharing channel
Confirm payment, public-health and follow-up routes
Verify the current price, basic medical-insurance and commercial-insurance route for the exact institution and service. A prior insurer authorization or another city's outpatient special-disease recognition may not transfer automatically. Ask separately about registration, assessment, treatment, medicines, rehabilitation, inpatient care, receipts and claim documents, and keep a backup payment method for an initial visit.
Community management under the national basic public-health programme is different from ordinary psychiatric outpatient care, school counselling, private therapy and hospital admission. If a provider mentions community follow-up, ask which local institution owns the record, what current eligibility and consent process applies, and how it connects with the specialist. Do not infer programme enrolment or foreign-passport eligibility from a national description.
- Current provider price information
- Basic-insurance insured place and status
- Designated-provider or local recognition rule
- Commercial-insurance authorization
- Receipt and claim documents
- Community programme owner if applicable
- Next appointment and responsible service
Close gaps and keep urgent routes distinct
Before the move, record who is responsible for pending results, record requests, prescription questions and the next appointment. After the first visit, ask the receiving provider for the exact follow-up location, date or booking trigger and how to contact the institution if the appointment is changed. If a referral is proposed, confirm the receiving institution and whether it has accepted the patient rather than relying on a generic referral note.
12356 provides psychological assistance and may help identify local support, but it is not an appointment, prescription or emergency dispatch service and does not nationally guarantee English. For an immediate medical emergency in mainland China use 120; for an immediate safety matter requiring police assistance use 110. This page cannot assess whether a situation is urgent. Use the institution's complaint channel for an unresolved record, privacy, registration, fee or handoff problem without treating it as clinical review.
- Pending-result owner
- Record-release status
- Next appointment and fallback
- Accepted referral or handoff
- 12356 saved for psychological assistance
- 120 and 110 saved separately
- Institution complaint contact
Useful language
Navigation phrases
Show the Chinese characters when pronunciation is uncertain. Use the copy button to send one phrase through a trusted channel without retyping it.
Avoidable problems
Common mistakes
- Waiting until the previous care relationship has ended to search for a provider
- Treating an email response as clinical acceptance
- Sending complete records to an unverified agent or personal account
- Replacing original records with an unlabelled translation
- Assuming a foreign prescription guarantees continuation or dispensing
- Opening duplicate hospital records under different passport spellings
- Letting a payer or companion become the default clinical contact
- Assuming insurance or public-health enrolment transfers between cities
- Leaving pending results without a named owner
- Using 12356, an online chat or a complaint channel as a substitute for 120 or 110
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Will a Chinese hospital automatically accept my overseas diagnosis and records?
No. Preserve the originals and ask the receiving institution what it accepts. Its clinicians decide what is usable and what current assessment is required.
Can my overseas clinician arrange a Chinese prescription?
The overseas record can support a handoff, but a licensed Chinese clinician and pharmacy control the local prescription and dispensing route.
Can I continue care through an internet hospital after moving?
Only if the accountable institution, identity, prior diagnosis, records and clinician assessment support a lawful online route. Controlled medicines cannot be prescribed through internet diagnosis.
Does my previous city's insurance approval move with me?
Do not assume so. Confirm the insured place, current benefit record, designated provider and cross-city or cross-province rules with the responsible payer.
Can a family member manage the whole handoff?
They may assist with defined tasks through the provider's authorization process. Relationship alone does not create blanket consent, record or prescription authority.
Can 12356 make an appointment or dispatch an ambulance?
It is a psychological-assistance hotline, not a guaranteed appointment or dispatch service. Use 120 for a medical emergency and 110 for police assistance.
Evidence
Sources consulted for this guide
National rules are separated from city and provider examples. Access dates show when a source was collected; source pages and procedures can change afterward.