Solving the treatment compliance problem is one of the most important steps when conducting rural commu- nity mental health services in China. The results of this study showed that psychoeducational family interven- tion could improve the level of relatives’ recognition of mental illness, which was consistent with the results of some previous studies (Leff et al. 1990; Barrowclough et al. 1999). In addition, the results showed that family in- tervention could enhance treatment compliance, which was consistent with the results of our pilot study (Xiang et al. 1994; Ran and Xiang 1995). The favourable compli- ance might be related to higher improvement rates of psychopathologic symptoms (Klingberg et al. 1999). The reason for the increase in compliance may be: [1] the change in relatives’ beliefs about illness and their atti- tudes towards the patient; [2] the out-reaching method of going to the patients’ homes as the psychotic pa- tients in the Chinese rural community reside dispersedly and have different individual problems, they need more specifically tailored intervention methods conducted in their homes; and [3] the simple and effective drug treatment (long-term depot).