Voices from the Two Sessions | Multiple proposals from committee members focus on the mental health of teenagers and attention on campus “hidden” bullying

On the morning of January 16th, the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) held a special meeting on “Adhering to Incorporating the Whole-Process People’s Democracy into Modern City Governance and Building a ‘Four-Person, All-People’ City Governance Community”. At the meeting, CPPCC member Liu Jianhui suggested paying attention to the mental health issues of teenagers during her speech.

On January 2nd, the National Health Commission designated 2025-2027 as the “Pediatric and Mental Health Service Year”. Previously, Shanghai had also included the mental health of teenagers in the “Shanghai Mental Health System Construction Development Plan (2020-2030)”. Mental health issues among teenagers are of great concern to the public and are complex in nature, with many challenges in governance.

The reporter from The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) noticed that at this year’s Shanghai Two Sessions, more than ten CPPCC members proposed motions focused on the mental health issues of teenagers, offering suggestions on various aspects such as mechanism construction, medical insurance payment, and parent education.

At the special meeting, Liu Jianhui pointed out three major issues during her speech. Firstly, there is a lack of mechanism support in terms of “school-home-community-medical” coordination, such as insufficient participation of medical professionals and early intervention and identification capabilities within schools. Secondly, there is a high demand for services but a relative shortage of mental health resources in medical institutions, as well as an effective mechanism to engage social organizations. Thirdly, the payment security system needs to be improved.

She proposed two suggestions to address these issues. Firstly, establish and improve the coordination mechanism between “school-home-community-medical”, with a focus on the construction of psychological crisis intervention system and psychological rescue team. Increase the popularization of mental health knowledge and organize health care institutions to conduct publicity and education in schools and communities. Strengthen the construction of psychological teachers in schools by providing mutual training between medical institutions and schools, and supporting schools to conduct student “psychological check-ups”. Under effective supervision, Liu Jianhui believes that social organizations can be appropriately guided and encouraged to cultivate professional psychologists and social workers to alleviate the relative shortage of medical resources and professionals, thereby promoting the formation of a normalized and standardized network for screening, diagnosis, and rehabilitation of children’s mental health issues.

Secondly, it is necessary to improve the payment security system for mental health services. Further discussions can be carried out on the price of psychological counseling medical insurance payments to gradually expand the scope of coverage for children’s psychological counseling. Through strict qualification review and licensing, community health centers and social psychological consulting services that meet the requirements can be included in the scope of medical insurance to broaden the channels for people to obtain professional psychological counseling services. In addition, a multi-level payment security system can be established that links “children’s resident insurance” with the “Children’s Hospitalization Mutual Aid Fund” and commercial insurance to encourage the development of specific types of insurance for mental health services by commercial insurers.

Student pressure is increasing, and the pressure on parent groups cannot be ignored. Parental mental health is not only related to their own quality of life but also has a profound impact on their children’s growth and development. Parents’ own mental health status and understanding of mental problems also play a crucial role in their children’s mental health.

At this meeting, CPPCC member Wang Xunguo, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Planning and Natural Resources Bureau, submitted a proposal to “Attach Importance to Improving Parents’ Mental Health Quality and Promote Students’ Healthy Growth”. Wang believes that current parents face problems such as a lack of understanding of their children’s mental problems, lack of effective communication strategies and skills with children who have mental problems, inability to collaborate effectively with psychological teachers, and transfer of pressure within families.

The proposal suggests enhancing parents’ knowledge level by providing psychological knowledge popularization courses in schools through psychological institutions, covering topics such as the psychological development characteristics of teenagers. Both online and offline methods can be adopted for convenient parent learning, with one-on-one or group counseling courses provided to guide parents in learning how to communicate effectively with their children. Additionally, schools can build communication platforms between parents and psychological institutions, clarify roles and collaboration processes between parents and psychological teachers, strengthening collaboration with professional psychological personnel. The proposal also emphasizes that mental health counseling services should not be limited to teenagers but should also be provided to families as a whole. Through psychological institutions providing psychological assessment services, parents’ mental problems can be identified and personalized consultation and treatment plans can be provided to reduce the impact of parents’ own problems on their children. Comprehensive mental health counseling for families can alleviate the tense atmosphere caused by learning pressure within families and alleviate the transfer of students’ learning pressure issues.

CPPCC member Jiang Qi also proposed in his proposal to pay

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