The 2024 National People's Congress and the National People's Congress are being held, and the topic of adolescent mental health has received widespread attention from the deputies and members. Gao Tianming, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, a professor at Southern Medical University, and a director of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Brain Science and Brain-like Research Center, told reporters from Nandu that he would submit a proposal "Pay attention to the mental health of children and adolescents", "hoping to make the society pay more attention to adolescent mental health issues." In his proposal, Gao Tianming suggested strengthening the construction of the school psychological assessment system, improving the ability of school psychological intervention, and improving the mental health service capacity of medical institutions.
Adolescent mental health issues have become a hot topic in society in recent years, and most of the representatives and committee members who put forward relevant suggestions are from the frontline of the grassroots level, including teachers and doctors. They have a fuller understanding of the importance and urgency of adolescent mental health issues, and they are also very professional in their suggestions on how to promote psychological crisis intervention.
It is not difficult to find that the suggestions of the deputies and committee members mainly focus on three aspects.
One is the importance of mental health. Zhong Can, a deputy to the National People's Congress and director of the outpatient department of the Red Cross Hospital in Wuzhou City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said in an interview with reporters: "Mental health problems are an important factor that triggers juvenile delinquency. Therefore, it is very important to improve the level of early intervention of juvenile mental illness to prevent juvenile delinquency. "The notion that mental health issues can lead to crime is not new, but many people may be inclined to think that it tends to be a phenomenon that occurs in the adult population. As for the focus on such problems as adolescents, it is often "prevention is better than prevention".
On the one hand, the competitive pressure, family problems, interpersonal problems, and learning pressure encountered by teenagers cannot be ignored; On the other hand, adolescents' limited upbringing experiences determine that they are more helpless and may react more radically when they encounter health problems. Therefore, adolescent mental health issues need to be paid great attention to by all sectors of society.
The second is the conceptual level, that is, the prejudice against psychological problems. Gao Tianming said that the "stigma" of psychological problems is serious, and parents and schools avoid talking about mental health, which affects the timeliness. "I hope that the public can have a correct understanding of mental health problems, especially in families, and parents should also have a correct understanding of their children's mental health problems. He also reminded, "Just like using some fever and cough medicine when you have a cold, parents also need to treat depression as a disease."
Many children do not see mental health problems as a disease, and even if they find out that their children have such problems, they will not choose to deal with them professionally, or they will cover up the problem for fear that their children will be discriminated against. Misconceptions about mental health can affect adolescents' response to psychological crises, and if intervention is not timely, the problem can easily expand. It is worth noting that many teachers also do not pay enough attention to students' psychological problems, and even their wrong practices will exacerbate students' psychological problems.
The third is the practical operation level, that is, how to carry out psychological crisis intervention. Zhai Meiqing, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and chairman of Heung Kong Holdings, submitted a proposal on accelerating the establishment of a long-term intervention mechanism for psychological crises in primary and secondary schools. She noted that there is still a "last mile" problem between the policy and the implementation of mental health care services, and suggested that under the leadership of relevant authoritative departments, a team of experts should be organized to develop a unified national mental health assessment tool suitable for the psychological characteristics of primary and secondary school students in China, and guide primary and secondary schools in various regions to carry out mental health assessment work on a regular basis.
Indeed, there are great differences in the professionalism and intensity of psychological crisis intervention for adolescents in different places. Especially in economically underdeveloped areas, this aspect of work is generally still in its infancy, and there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of professionalism and authority.
Today, there is a social consensus on the importance of adolescent mental health issues. However, how to turn consensus into a positive response still needs to be worked on all fronts. The voices and suggestions of the deputies and committee members are very valuable, and it is necessary to take action as soon as possible to care for the mental health of young people.