In helping a Chinese family that has a relative with a mental illness, it is important to respect culture-specific family structures, functions, and processes—for example, the extended family structure and the close interdependence of the relationships within it and the strong sense of filial responsibility and mutual support—and to use these in group interventions (14,15). The study reported here aimed to compare the effectiveness of three methods of family intervention for Chinese patients with schizophrenia. The main hypotheses were that the mutual support group embedded in psychiatric outpatient services would significantly reduce the number of hospitalizations among the patients and would improve psychosocial functioning and use of mental health services by their families compared with the psycho education and standard care groups.