Ministry of Education： Primary and secondary schools should incorporate mental health education into school-based curriculum.

　　Cctv newsAccording to the website of the Ministry of Education, recently, the General Office of the Ministry of Education issued the Notice on Strengthening the Management of Students’ Mental Health (hereinafter referred to as the Notice), demanding to further improve the pertinence and effectiveness of students’ mental health work, effectively strengthen professional support and scientific management, and strive to improve students’ mental health literacy.

　　The "Notice" clarifies that it is necessary to strengthen source management and comprehensively improve students’ mental health literacy. To strengthen the construction of mental health courses, colleges and universities should offer public compulsory courses of mental health for college students, and in principle set up 2 credits (32-mdash; 36 hours), primary and secondary schools should incorporate mental health education into the school-based curriculum, and at the same time pay attention to arranging various forms of life education and frustration education. Vigorously cultivate students’ positive psychological quality, 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. As early as possible, we should sort out all kinds of pressures, 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. Strengthen the joint efforts of schools, families and social education.

　　The "Notice" requires that process management should be strengthened to improve the ability of early detection and the level of daily consultation and counseling. Do a good job in mental health evaluation, speed up the development of a psychological evaluation scale that is more in line with the characteristics of students in China. Colleges and universities should carry out full coverage mental health evaluation at the right time after freshmen enter the school every year, paying attention to the scientific analysis and rational application of the evaluation results. County-level education departments take the lead in organizing mental health evaluation in primary and secondary schools in the region, and conduct mental health evaluation once a year for senior primary schools, junior high schools and senior high schools. To strengthen the prevention and control of daily early warning, colleges and universities should improve the four-level early warning network of "school-department-class-dormitory/individual", focusing on whether students encounter major changes, major setbacks and obvious anomalies. Counselors and class teachers should visit all students’ dormitories every month, and primary and secondary school teachers should communicate closely with parents to jointly strengthen psychological counseling. To strengthen psychological counseling service, colleges and universities should strengthen the construction of psychological counseling service platform, set up psychological development counseling rooms, positive psychological experience centers, group activity rooms, comprehensive quality training rooms, etc. County-level education departments should establish regional psychological counseling centers for primary and secondary school students to provide professional guidance and skills training on a regular basis.

　　The "Notice" requires that the management of results should be strengthened and the ability to intervene and handle psychological crisis events should be improved. Vigorously build a cooperative intervention mechanism between home and school. For students who are identified with psychological barriers such as depression when they enter school, the school organizes relevant professionals inside and outside the school to make judgments, inform parents of the intervention plan in time, and agree on the division of tasks with parents. Actively strive for the cooperation and support of professional institutions, and continue to strengthen the cooperation between education departments and schools at all levels and mental health medical institutions. Do a good job in the aftermath of students’ emergencies. After students have 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 local education and public security departments.

　　The "Notice" emphasizes the need to strengthen security management and increase comprehensive support. Equipped with a strong backbone team, colleges and universities should be equipped with full-time teachers of mental health education according to the teacher-student ratio of not less than 1:4000, and each school should be equipped with at least 2 teachers. We should increase the intensity of mental health education and training, carry out special training on mental health education for all counselors at least once every three years, and support counselors to study for a second professional master’s degree in psychology-related majors. Every primary and secondary school should be equipped with at least one full-time mental health education teacher, and county-level teaching and research institutions should be equipped with psychological teaching and research personnel. To ensure the venue and funds, the school should co-ordinate all kinds of funds in the annual budget to ensure the basic funds for mental health education, determine the average student standard, allocate them in full and on time, and establish a growth mechanism as appropriate.