Beijing Municipal Education Commission： Each primary and secondary school should be equipped with at least one full-time mental health education teacher.
According to the website of the Beijing Municipal Education Commission on October 9th, the Beijing Municipal Education Commission issued the Notice on Strengthening the Management of Mental Health of Primary and Secondary School Students, proposing to establish and improve the grading early warning and intervention mechanism for students’ psychological crisis. For students with psychological problems found in their daily work and psychological assessment, the school should organize relevant professionals inside and outside the school to make judgments, work with parents to formulate targeted intervention plans, make timely adjustments, and dynamically track the effectiveness of intervention. When students have serious psychological crisis, such as suicide, self-injury, wounding and destroying things, the school promptly assists parents to send them to the hospital for medical treatment. Each school in primary and secondary schools should be equipped with at least one full-time mental health education teacher. Schools with more than 500 students, schools run by groups, and schools run by multiple schools should appropriately increase the number of psychological teachers.
The full text is as follows:
Notice of Beijing Municipal Education Commission on Strengthening the Management of Mental Health of Primary and Secondary School Students
In order to implement the Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Education on Strengthening the Management of Students’ Mental Health (No.10 [2021] of the Department of Education and Political Affairs), promote the construction of a trinity mental health education system of "school, family and society", effectively strengthen professional support and scientific management, further improve the pertinence and effectiveness of students’ mental health work, focus on improving students’ mental health literacy, and enhance their ability to control their emotions, cope with setbacks and adapt to the environment, we hereby notify the relevant requirements.
First, strengthen the source management, and comprehensively improve students’ mental health literacy.
1. Strengthen the construction of mental health courses. Schools should play the role of the main channel of classroom teaching, help students master mental health knowledge and skills, and establish a sense of self-help, mutual assistance and help. According to the requirements of full grade coverage, mental health education is carried out in the form of mental health education activity classes, class team meetings, group counseling, psychological training, special education activities, special lectures, etc., and mental health education classes are included in the school-based curriculum. Strengthen mental health education at important time points such as freshmen’s entrance, graduation, and before and after mid-term and final exams. In strict accordance with the Outline of Mental Health Education for Primary and Secondary Schools in Beijing (Revised), the contents of mental health education are implemented, and at the same time, various forms of life education and frustration education are arranged to guide students to learn to face setbacks and difficulties rationally.
2. Vigorously cultivate students’ positive psychological quality. Adhere to the unity of mental health education and ideological and moral education, guide students to establish lofty ideals, cultivate feelings of home and country, inherit the spirit of struggle, and cultivate a positive and optimistic attitude towards life and perseverance. Give full play to the important role of physical education, aesthetic education, labor education and campus culture, and promote the healthy development of students’ psychology in all directions. Strictly implement the rigid requirements of physical education class and aesthetic education, actively promote Chinese traditional sports, extensively carry out popular sports and rich artistic practice activities, systematically strengthen labor education in combination with the characteristics of each school segment, and attract students to actively participate in various healthy and progressive campus cultural life and student club activities. Through publicity window, corridor display board, electronic screen, class blackboard newspaper, etc., we will carry out popular science propaganda on mental health, effectively cultivate students’ psychological quality of cherishing and loving life, and enhance their sense of responsibility and mission.
3. Classify and channel various pressures as early as possible. Adhere to the combination of development-oriented and preventive intervention, and take active measures to avoid psychological crisis caused by stress that cannot be alleviated in view of the psychological imbalance that students may encounter in study, life, interpersonal relationship and self-awareness. Pay attention to caring for and helping students who encounter difficulties in learning and have poor academic performance. Teachers should give individual guidance in time, encourage peer assistance among students, and help students relieve psychological pressure and boost their learning confidence. Pay timely attention to students with financial difficulties, students from single-parent families, students with physical disabilities or serious health problems, left-behind children and migrant children, care about students’ lives, and foresee and effectively solve students’ psychological problems. Timely understand the difficulties and problems that students encounter in interpersonal communication and collective life, and carry out targeted individual conversations and group counseling to help students establish a correct outlook on life and values.
4. Strengthen the joint efforts of schools, families and social education. Adhere to the school-led and multi-party cooperation to promote. The school timely understands whether students have early psychological trauma, major family changes, and tense parent-child relationship, and actively seeks effective support from students’ family members and related personnel. Through parents’ school, home visits and other forms, help parents understand the psychological characteristics and laws of their children’s age, guide parents to pay scientific attention to and care for students’ mental health, create a good family atmosphere, improve their awareness and ability to identify and deal with children’s psychological problems, and prevent children’s psychological problems from being caused by family conflicts or improper education methods. Make full use of radio, television, online media and other platforms and channels to spread mental health knowledge and actively create a social environment conducive to the healthy growth of students.
Two, strengthen the process management, improve the ability of early detection and the level of daily counseling.
5. Do a good job in mental health assessment. Actively rely on professional strength and means, regularly carry out students’ mental health assessment, improve the screening and early warning mechanism, and implement accurate intervention as soon as possible. District education committees should set up or rely on relevant professional institutions to take the lead in organizing primary and secondary schools in the region to carry out mental health assessment, conduct a mental health assessment for senior primary schools, junior high schools and senior high schools every year, establish and enrich students’ mental health database, guide schools to scientifically use the results of students’ mental health assessment, and promote the establishment of "one life, one policy" psychological growth files. For students with obvious psychological problems, we should strengthen the construction and management of students’ psychological files.
6. Strengthen daily early warning and prevention. Schools should establish "classes — Grade — The school’s three-level early warning information reporting mechanism ensures that students’ psychological crisis can be warned, reported and handled in time. In-depth promotion of on-the-spot home visits, at least once a semester for students who need to pay attention to life difficulties, learning difficulties or mental health problems. When students are found to have major changes in their thinking, great fluctuations in their studies, major changes, major setbacks and obvious anomalies, they should conduct home visits in time and record the communication between home and school in students’ psychological files. Mental health teachers and class teachers should communicate closely with parents to strengthen psychological counseling and help children tide over the difficulties. Students with extreme behavioral tendencies should be given timely intervention and help.
7. Strengthen psychological counseling services. Establish a three-level psychological counseling service platform for cities, districts and schools. We will build and make good use of the online psychological counseling service platform for teachers and students of Beijing Digital Moral Education Network for primary and secondary schools and the 12355 youth psychological counseling service hotline. The District Education Commission should establish a district-level psychological counseling center for primary and secondary school students, provide immediate psychological counseling for primary and secondary school students in the whole district after class, on weekends and holidays, and provide a 24-hour message platform for psychological problems through websites, WeChat WeChat official account and other channels to answer students’ psychological puzzles in time. All schools should improve the system of duty and appointment for psychological counseling, and meet the needs of students for counseling and help through interviews and telephone calls. Intensify publicity to improve the awareness rate of parents of teachers and students on psychological counseling channels in cities, districts and schools.
Third, strengthen the management of results and improve the ability of psychological crisis intervention and disposal.
8. Vigorously build a cooperative intervention mechanism between home and school. Establish and improve the grading early warning and intervention mechanism for students’ psychological crisis. For students with psychological problems found in daily work and psychological evaluation, the school should organize relevant professionals inside and outside the school to make judgments, work with parents to formulate targeted intervention plans, make timely adjustments, and dynamically track the effectiveness of intervention. When students have serious psychological crisis, such as suicide, self-injury, wounding and destroying things, the school promptly assists parents to send them to the hospital for medical treatment.
9. Actively seek cooperation and support from professional institutions. District education committees and schools should strengthen coordination with health departments, establish a support and cooperation mechanism for mental health education and psychological crisis intervention in schools by mental health medical institutions, and provide professional psychological counseling or psychotherapy for primary and secondary schools. For students with serious psychological crisis beyond the ability of school counseling and intervention, the school should assist parents and refer them to professional institutions for diagnosis and treatment in time.
10. Do a good job in the aftermath of student emergencies. After a student has an accident at school due to psychological problems, the school should immediately start the emergency work plan, contact the parents of the students at the first time, and verify the situation and deal with it in time under the guidance of the District Education Commission and the public security departments. In response to possible social concerns, schools should respond in a timely manner in accordance with the principle of openness and transparency, and strive for the support of online information, public security and other departments to do a good job together.
Fourth, strengthen security management and increase comprehensive support.
11. Complete and build a strong backbone team. Each school in primary and secondary schools is equipped with at least one full-time mental health education teacher. On the basis of ensuring the number of full-time psychological teachers, part-time psychological teachers can be equipped according to the actual situation and work needs. Schools with more than 500 students, schools run by groups and schools run by one school with multiple addresses should appropriately increase the allocation of psychological teachers. In principle, full-time psychological teachers should have a bachelor degree or above in psychology or related majors, and part-time psychological teachers must undergo professional training or have professional qualifications for mental health education. To improve the supporting ability of head teachers’ mental health education, primary and secondary schools should focus on mental health education as a compulsory content in pre-job training, professional training and daily training for head teachers and teachers of various disciplines. All faculty and staff of the school should establish the consciousness of paying attention to students’ mental health, and inform the class teacher and psychological teacher in time if they find that students have abnormal psychology or behavior.
12 to strengthen the construction of mental health education research team. Build a full-time and part-time teaching and research team of mental health education at the municipal level, establish and improve the regular supervision mechanism of mental health education in primary and secondary schools, adhere to and improve the exchange mechanism of research results of mental health education, promote the construction of characteristic schools of mental health education, enhance the professional level of mental health education, and promote the standardized and scientific development of mental health education. Education, research and training departments in all districts should be fully equipped with full-time psychological teaching and research staff, and establish a long-term mechanism for teaching, research and training. Support qualified schools to set up psychological teaching and research groups and carry out regular activities.
13. Increase the support of psychological teachers. Support psychological teachers to participate in activities such as study, further study, training and communication, improve the professional skills of mental health education, and promote the professional development of psychological teachers. According to the actual situation of the school, all kinds of mental health education lectures, theme activities and psychological counseling for students, parents and teachers will be included in the workload and included in the performance management to ensure that full-time psychological teachers enjoy the same treatment as class teachers. Part-time psychological teachers calculate the workload according to the relevant regulations of the school and guarantee the corresponding treatment.
14. Ensure the site and funds. The District Education Commission should equip the district-level psychological counseling center for primary and secondary school students with special space and hardware and software equipment, and further promote the construction of psychological counseling rooms for primary and secondary schools in accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Education’s Guide to the Construction of Psychological Counseling Rooms for Primary and Secondary Schools. Improve the system of psychological counseling on duty, appointment, interview, etc., to ensure students’ psychological counseling and help-seeking needs. During the period when students are in school, the psychological counseling room should be open to students every day during recess, after class and other non-class hours, and teachers with psychological counseling qualifications should be arranged to be on duty. All districts and schools should ensure the daily operation of mental health education and the funds for equipment configuration, operation and maintenance and team building. All districts should fully guarantee the funds for mental health education and establish a growth mechanism as appropriate. Schools should co-ordinate all kinds of funds in the annual budget to ensure the funds for mental health education.