Recently, Li Yang, a second-year student in Panjin City, Liaoning Province, filled out a set of online psychological survey questionnaires as required in the computer room of the school. Classmates speak" and so on.
After answering all the questions, students also need to fill in personal information such as name and class.
The "Chinese National Mental Health Development Report (2019-2020)" shows that the detection rate of depression among adolescents in my country in 2020 is 24.6%, of which 17.2% are mild depression and 7.4% are severe depression.
In response to the continuing increase in the incidence of adolescent mental illness, especially mood disorders, the Ministry of Education recently stated in its reply to the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference’s “Proposal on Further Implementing the Prevention and Treatment Measures for Adolescent Depression” that depression screening should be included in student health examinations and established Student mental health files, assess the mental health of students, and pay special attention to students with abnormal evaluation results.
As a national second-level psychological counselor, Li Yang's mother Bai Xueying said that the mental health of adolescents should not be ignored. Some schools test the water and include depression in their physical examinations, reflecting their care for the mental health of adolescents.
But at the same time, she is also worried about whether the specific operations in the screening process can be scientifically appropriate, whether the screening results can be used and stored in the link to ensure that privacy is not leaked, and how the school will do follow-up mental health counseling and intervention after diagnosis ?
Some ignore, some are too sensitive,
Parents and teachers lack correct understanding of depression
Ma Xiaoxi is a freshman in a key high school in Liaoning Province. He has excellent grades in junior high school and has not been ranked in the top three in the exam.
But after entering the key high school, Ma Xiaoxi's grades were mediocre, and sometimes even counted down in the class.
The huge psychological gap made Ma Xiaoxi unable to adapt. After that, she started skipping class every other day, and then she didn't go to school at all and became addicted to mobile games.
Speaking of this case, Wang Guan, a teenage psychologist, blamed himself.
Two years ago, Ma Xiaoxi participated in Wangguan's mental health charity class.
After talking with Ma Xiaoxi alone, Wang Guan found that she lost her temper and was always uninterested in doing things. She could only fall asleep after lying down for two or three hours.
At that time, Wang Guan reminded Ma Xiaoxi's parents that the child may be suffering from depression, but the answer was: "There is food and clothing, and the supplementary tuition fee is more than 1,000 yuan a week. Why can she be depressed?"
Nowadays, Ma Xiaoxi has been diagnosed with moderate depression. Wang Guan regretfully said: “If you persisted a little longer, it might not be the current result. Early screening can find signs of depression. Many parents think that children have problems. Simple rebellion, in fact, this kind of ignorance and neglect of disease can cause devastating harm to children."
"China Youth Development Report" shows that our children under the age of 17, around 30 million people suffer from various emotional disorders and behavioral problems.
Wang Guan believes that incorporating depression screening into student health examinations will enable more and more parents to realize that mental illness is also a disease that needs to be treated.
Contrary to ignoring the mental health of students, some teachers and parents are too sensitive to the mental state of their children.
Zhao Wenhan, a national second-level psychological counselor, said that while working as a psychological counselor in a middle school in Shenyang, he received a list of "problematic students" listed by the head teacher.
But after communicating one by one, he found that these students were just naughty and had no psychological problems. Therefore, "early screening is also helpful to correct this extreme phenomenon."
Students "deliberately fill in the energy options"?
General screening for depression can't just use one questionnaire
It is undoubtedly a good thing to incorporate depression screening into student physical examinations. It will help parents and teachers conduct cognitive corrections, and achieve early detection and treatment. However, how to make good governance not be out of shape is thought-provoking.
Not long ago, Shanghai’s Changning District was exposed to a depression screening questionnaire for elementary school students that involved suicide and suicide methods, such as "Do you have more reasons to live when you are most depressed and depressed than your reasons to die?" "Recently In one week, have you written your suicide last words?" "How did you prepare for suicide in the past week?"...
The "suicide questionnaire" triggered a heated discussion among netizens. Soon the district education bureau reported that the district minor mental health counseling center and relevant departments of the bureau did not strictly check the content of the questionnaire, and requested that the questionnaire be stopped. .
Zhao Wenhan told reporters that in the diagnosis of depression, questionnaires will be distributed according to the situation. Questionnaires involving questions such as how to prepare for suicidal behavior are prepared for depressed people with suicidal tendencies. Students in the preliminary screening stage should not be allowed to fill out the preliminary screening. After that, a number of physiological tests are required to confirm the diagnosis.
In addition to worrying about the questionnaire itself, Bai Xueying has repeatedly confirmed with the head teacher whether the real-name screening results are public, and whether the diagnosis results will affect subsequent studies and employment after being included in the health file.
As a professional psychological counselor, she has encountered some schools requiring students with mental illness to suspend school due to fear of taking responsibility, and also encountered some colleges and universities not admitting students with mental illness, and it is also included in the physical examination standards for civil servants. It is clearly stated that those with a history of mental illness are not qualified.
Compared with his mother's many concerns about the future, Li Yang is more concerned about how his teachers and classmates think of himself after screening for depression. Therefore, when he fills out the questionnaire, he deliberately fills in the options in the direction of "positive energy".
After screening, it should not be simply pushed to the family.
Schools still need mental health counseling and correct intervention
Zhao Wenhan believes that the Ministry of Education's inclusion of depression screening in student physical examinations has released a clear signal to the society, indicating that depression is a disease that requires attention and treatment as soon as possible, but there is no clear direction on how to respond after screening and diagnosis.
"The scale evaluation is only a small part of the screening process. The subsequent interviews, identification, treatment, and prognosis are actually more important."
"Whether the school is equipped with enough psychological counselors, whether consultation and follow-up intervention can be carried out in a timely manner, and whether there can be sufficient communication among students, schools, parents and professionals... are all issues to be dealt with in the follow-up." Qin Xufang, a professor at the College of Preschool and Elementary Education of the University, believes that just making a scale is far from enough. The later school's handling measures, the degree of cooperation of parents, and the input of medical resources are all practical issues that need to be considered.
Paying attention to adolescents’ mental health should not be a mere formality, and schools should not simply ask students to take a leave of absence for treatment after problems are discovered.
Wang Guan believes that with the exception of a small number of students with serious illness, letting students with depression stay on campus and study and live with their classmates will help them to get out of the psychological haze. Of course, this is also beneficial to the professional ability of school psychology teachers and the psychology of parents. Health literacy puts forward higher requirements.
In addition, the side effects of drugs, repeated illnesses, the negative effects of disease stigmatization, and difficulties in restoring social functions are also barriers that schools and parents need to help their children pass through.
Our reporter Liu Xu