More effort is needed to improve training for mental health caregivers for the elderly, as well as those based in the community, experts and industry insiders said.

Guo Ping, a researcher at the China Research Center on Aging, said many extreme events resulting in injury and death, including suicide, have occurred in nursing homes in recent years.

"They mainly happen because of management loopholes at institutions and poor nursing services, such as a lack of timely mental health care," he said.