China News Service, May 16th (Chen Jing, Shi Jiaqi) The Children and Adolescent Mental Health Promotion Alliance in the Yangtze River Delta Region was established on the 16th in Xinhua Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine.
In this alliance, medical experts, education circles, and psychology experts will unite across borders to jointly build a three-level network of children's psychological intervention, so that more children can be found early and receive early intervention after they have psychological problems.
The alliance will jointly carry out a broader and in-depth child mental health promotion work, benefiting the vast number of children in the Yangtze River Delta region, and helping children grow up in the sun.
Zhang Jinsong, director of the Department of Clinical Psychology, Shanghai Xinhua Hospital, told reporters that children and adolescents have more and more mental health needs, and currently in Shanghai, the number of professionally trained child psychologists is far from meeting the needs.
In order to solve the problem of the scarcity of expert resources, the Pediatrics and Children's Department of Xinhua Hospital and Shanghai Mental Health Center have formulated psychological intervention programs for children in kindergartens, elementary schools, middle and high schools.
It is reported that children's mental health work is multi-disciplinary and requires close integration of the medical, educational, and psychological fields.
The newly established Children and Adolescent Mental Health Promotion Alliance in the Yangtze River Delta Region has 63 hospitals in its first batch of members, and has also absorbed education departments from all over the country, forming a service network that includes relevant experts in medicine, psychology, education, etc. Children’s mental health workers, especially grassroots children’s mental health workers, will ultimately improve the mental health of children and young people aged 0-18 in the Yangtze River Delta.
During the interview, the reporter learned that the alliance will be committed to solving four problems: children’s emotional management and stress coping ability, reduce the potential for disease, and reduce the damage of related obstacles; when the public crisis comes, there will be more trained children in psychology. Workers immediately implement interventions in accordance with standardized programs; improve children’s mental function and reduce functional impairment and secondary comorbidities in children with common key diseases; promote appropriate psychological intervention techniques for children of different ages, such as attention deficits Children with movement disorders, mood disorders, and autism.
Xinhua Hospital also established the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Center on the same day.
"After the epidemic, our outpatient volume has been rising." Zhang Jinsong told reporters that children accounted for two-thirds of the outpatient volume in the clinical psychology department of Xinhua Hospital.
Zhang Jinsong said that because of the complexity and diversity of society, many children feel pressure, but they will not actively manage and adjust their emotions, and many problems have arisen.
For example, some children are unwilling to go to kindergarten or school when facing peer relationship problems; some children have accumulated too many negative emotions due to excessive learning pressure.
The expert said that "preventing children's psychological problems in the bud" is the common wish of children's psychiatrists and psychologists.
She said frankly: "Children at different ages will have different psychological problems. Our goal is not only to discover children’s psychological problems, but to find problems is not only to improve symptoms, but more importantly, to improve mental function and have a good individual. The ability to adapt to life and society, learning ability, and social ability will promote children to develop a sound personality and have a good future career development."
It is understood that in the “Promotion of Mental Health” in the “Healthy China 2030 Planning Outline” of the State Council, it is mentioned that “increase the early detection and timely intervention of the psychological problems of key groups”.
Children belong to the key population, and the mental health of childhood (0-18 years old including adolescents) is an important foundation for future development.
In 2020, led by the Department of Clinical Psychology, Shanghai Xinhua Hospital, the Department of Pediatrics and Children of the Mental Health Center of Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, the Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Shanghai Jiaotong University, and the Department of Psychology, Pediatrics Hospital of Fudan University will participate in the construction of the Shanghai Public Health System The annual action plan (2020-2022) focuses on the construction of mental health of children and adolescents in the field of psychology and mental health.