Observation of the two sessions
At this year's National People's Congress and the National People's Congress, students' mental health education continued to receive the attention of deputies and members. For example, it is recommended to increase the intensity of campus psychological crisis intervention, and include psychological counseling and other programs in medical insurance; It is recommended to build a "whole life cycle" life education system, and create a "Chinese model" of psychological counseling and excellence. The deputies and committee members believe that improving students' mental health literacy is a major topic for deepening educational reform at present, an objective requirement for building a strong country in education, and is related to the future of the country and the nation, and is related to cultivating new people of the era with all-round development.
In recent years, the work of students' mental health has been highly valued, and the general secretary has made a series of important instructions on students' mental health education. In May last year, the Ministry of Education and 17 other departments jointly issued the "Special Action Plan for Comprehensively Strengthening and Improving Student Mental Health in the New Era (2023-2025)", which comprehensively deployed student mental health work in the coming period. In February this year, the first plenary meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Student Mental Health was held in Beijing, proposing the establishment of a national integrated system for monitoring and early warning of student mental health. The extreme importance of student mental health work is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and has become a broad consensus in the education system and the whole society.
To do a good job in the mental health of students in the new era, the first principle is to stress science and reality, and avoid expanding psychological problems. Psychological problems, like other diseases, are unavoidable in the process of a person's growth, and even if there are some, they can be corrected. In fact, in primary and secondary schools, there are not many students who really suffer from mental illness, and most of them may be emotional problems, so do not easily label them as "anxiety disorders" or "depression", resulting in generalization of psychological problems. Therefore, in reality, we should avoid mental health education as the "last line of defense" to educate students. The origin of education is to educate people, and the essence of educating people is to educate people. Educators should use moral education, wisdom, physical strength, beauty and health to make good use of the important concept of "five educations" to promote mental health, and care for students' mental health. By continuously optimizing the content and methods of education and teaching, we will give full play to the active role of classrooms and student clubs to promote the all-round and healthy growth of students. It is necessary to evaluate and look at students' psychological problems in a realistic manner, and we should neither take them lightly nor exaggerate them.
To do a good job in student mental health work in the new era, we should not only respect and learn from the beneficial practices of international adolescent mental health education, but also proceed from the growth environment and actual characteristics of Chinese adolescents and highlight Chinese characteristics. The Chinese nation is an ancient nation, and its history of several thousand years has given birth to our unique national culture and national psychology. Therefore, on the issue of mental health education, it is impossible for us to copy the experience of the West, and it should have Chinese characteristics, local characteristics, and the characteristics of the times. While actively learning from the theories and techniques of international psychological counseling, we should also examine our historical and cultural background, social background and value system. For example, it is necessary to give full consideration to the national situation, school situation, class situation, and school situation, and carry out targeted mental health education to avoid copying the experience of others; Attention can be paid to the interpretation and diagnosis and treatment of mental illness in Chinese culture and traditional Chinese medicine theory, and the advantages of local resources should be given full play to local conditions, so as to improve the localized psychological counseling theory system and diagnosis and treatment ideas.
To do a good job in the mental health of students in the new era, we must have an overall thinking and a collaborative concept, take coordination and linkage as a breakthrough point, avoid "fighting alone", and relevant departments should work together with a high sense of responsibility. Students' mental health should not be "based on facts", which is an important feature of mental health work. The poor connection between schools and hospitals leads to the restriction of students' medical treatment, and the communication difficulties caused by the different positions of parents and schools, which indicate that the difficulties of students' mental health work are wide and complex, and it is difficult to solve them independently by a single department and subject. If there is a lack of understanding and support for each other, it will lead to difficult and ineffective work, and even delay the discovery and timing of students' psychological problems. Caring for students' mental health is a shared responsibility of the whole society and a collective action. Everyone should pay attention to psychology, and everyone should pay attention to health. Departments such as for education, health, procuratorates, and sports shall divide labor and responsibility under the overall plan, promote information sharing, and explore effective models of collaboration. The key to doing a good job in students' mental health lies in the family, and the school has a responsibility. All local education departments should coordinate resources to do a good job of guidance, services, and training, and all levels and types of schools should help parents discover and screen students' psychological problems with heart and affection, focusing on moving the threshold forward, and should do a good job of monitoring and intervening with positive actions to "prevent disease".
Student mental health is not only a major task facing the education system, but also a topic with the times, social nature and complexity. Doing a good job in students' mental health is an arduous and arduous task. However, this is a "must-answer question" to protect the healthy growth of young people, and it is also an unshirkable mission and responsibility. Only by doing a good job in this big article, can students be physically and mentally healthy, develop in an all-round way, and grow up happily, can every family have a quiet and good time, and can the Chinese nation realize the dream of great rejuvenation.
The author is a commentator for this newspaper).
China Education Daily, 2024-03-07, 2nd edition
Author: Liu Yu.