Transcript Mental Health Education in Bejing Middle School

Mental Health Education in
Beijing Middle School
Zhi-jin Hou Ph.D.
School of Psychology
Beijing Normal University
The development of mental
health education in China
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Beginning in the early 80’s
Spontaneous exploration stage
Experiment and development stage
Promotion stage
Who are delivering the mental
health education program
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Class master (teacher in charge of class)
Moral education teacher
Assistant teacher of Young Pioneer/ Communist
Youth League
Graduate students of psychology department
School doctor
Full time counselor
Current forms of mental health
education
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Curriculum (in the grade 7 and grade 10)
Individual assessment (mental health database)
Group guidance and group counseling
Individual counseling (included hotline)
School newspaper
Referral
Consultant
The content of mental health
education program
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Different from school to school
Based on instructor’s experiences
Based on text book
Based on the implicit understanding of mental
health
Influence factors for mental health
education --- system explanation
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Individual system --- mental health education
delivers
Social contextual system (the other people
systems with which the individual interact)
Environmental-societal contextual system (less
directly related to the individual, but their
influences can be profound)
Social changes
colleague
school
geographical
location
delivers of
mental health
education
media
policy
parents of
students
The problems existed in the present
situation
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The standards, goals and contents of mental health
education are not clearly established. It is often mixed
with moral education
Lack of systematic research and lack of evaluation for
the program
No enough professional training
Do not pay attention to career development
Only focus on one aspect
Mental health education delivers do not have
professional identity and appropriate promotion path
The future direction for mental
health education programs (1)
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Three levels (developmental, prevention,
intervention) work should be done
Comprehensive school-based guidance program
will be needed
School teachers should cooperate with other
professionals (psychologists and psychiatrists)
and fully use the social resources
The future direction for mental
health education programs (2)
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More professional training will be needed to
deliver to school teachers
Status and identity problems should be
resolved
Pay attention to assessment of program and
related researches will be needed
Individual system – delivers of
mental health education
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Knowledge of psychology and counseling
Past educational and teaching experiences
Values and attitudes towards to the mental health
education
Interests
Roles
Age and career development stages
Social content system
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School: support from principal; reward system;
school culture and school type
Media: split or disassociate message
Colleague
Parents of students
Environmental-societal contextual
system
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Police:
 attention from central government and local
government (“national guidance document on
mental health education for elementary school
and middle school” issued by educational
ministry in 2002)
 identity status (including promotion system
 evaluation systems
Environmental-societal contextual
system
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Social changes
 only child families in cities
 increasing divorce and remarried families
 attitude towards sex has changed
 big gap between poverty and wealthy groups
 high competition and high stress in the society
Environmental-societal contextual
system
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Geographical location
 social resources and access to information
 different socioeconomic status
 continuous educational training opportunities
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