Children's Mental Health Protection Initiative

The protection of children's mental health is never the one-way responsibility of one party, nor is there a standardized solution that is universally applicable. It is a flexible support network jointly woven by families, schools, communities, and clinical systems. There is no perfect grid size, and the only criterion is whether it can catch the unspoken emotions of each child.

You may not believe it. Last month, I went on a home visit with Mr. Zhang from the community psychology station. I met a third-grade boy, Haohao, who skipped school for half a month and tore up his textbooks. He couldn’t sit still for five minutes in class and would run out of the classroom. The class teacher judged him as “suspected of having ADHD. Parents are advised to take him to the hospital for medication.” Haohao’s mother beat him three times at home but didn’t get better. She came to us crying for help. It took three conversations to figure out that it was not ADHD at all: half a year ago, his parents secretly packed up and went to work in other places. They were afraid that he would make a fuss and dare not say anything. Haohao woke up and found that only his grandparents were left at home. He always thought that he was abandoned by his parents because he was not good enough. He tore up textbooks and skipped school on purpose. He felt that "the more trouble I made, the more my parents would come back to take care of me."

When it comes to this, we have to mention the controversy that has been quarreling in the academic community for almost ten years: should children's psychological intervention "first cover the details before intervention" or "early screening and early correction"? Scholars from the school of developmental psychology have always objected to casually labeling young children. They believe that six- and seven-year-old children are already active and emotionally unstable. If they are screened with scales and given a judgment of "emotional disorder" or "ADHD tendency", it will give negative hints to children and parents, and in the end the falsehood will become true. ； However, clinical interventionist doctors also have solid data to support it: the detection rate of depressive disorder in domestic children under 14 years old has reached 14.8%. By the time many children come to see a doctor for self-injurious behavior, it has already developed to moderate to severe disease and missed the best intervention period. I think there's nothing wrong with both sides of the argument. In a situation like Haohao's, if the medication is given as ADHD, it will really ruin the child. ； But if you encounter a child who really has attention deficit disorder, if you intervene half a year early, you will be able to avoid the injustice of "I'm just stupid, I'm just disobedient" for several years.

When many people hear about the "Children's Mental Health Protection Action", they think it's some fancy project and a lot of psychology classes. In fact, it's not. Last year I went to a primary school in a county in Zhejiang for research. They didn’t do anything fancy. They just put a bright yellow “emotion mailbox” in the stairwell of each floor. If the children had anything they didn’t dare to say, they could just write a note and stuff it in without writing their name. Every Wednesday, the psychology teacher would sort out common questions and respond by telling stories during the morning meeting. For example, if someone asked, “ What should I do if I get angry when being called a nickname by a classmate?" The teacher talked about his own experience of being called "fat girl" when he was a child, and said, "You can tell him directly that you don't like it. If he still says it, tell the teacher, and if it doesn't work, you can also give him a bad nickname, as long as you are happy." This is a hundred times more effective than the kind of lesson that reads "Learn tolerance and control emotions" based on the textbook. Of course, some people don't approve of this approach, saying what if a child writes about self-harm and the teacher doesn't see it in time? Will it delay things instead? This is indeed a problem. The school later added a rule: as long as a red mark is drawn on the note, no matter how late it is, the child who wrote the note must be found and followed up that day. After two years of operation, three children who secretly collected blades and planned to harm themselves have been stopped.

I have been doing this for almost six years, and what annoys me the most is when people ask, “Is there a universal protection plan?” There really isn’t. Just like dressing a child, you can't just follow the height chart. Some children are sensitive and their eyes will turn red if you speak louder. Some children are thick-skinned. If you play basketball with them for half an hour, whatever is on your mind will come out. There used to be a left-behind child in our community who lived with his grandparents and hadn't spoken ten words for half a year. The social worker accompanied him to feed the stray cats in the community for three months before he lowered his head and muttered out "I miss my mother." Is there any standardized process for this kind of thing?

Of course, there are indeed a lot of loopholes to be filled: many school psychology teachers are part-time moral education teachers and do not even have basic empathy skills. When a child says, "My parents are arguing and I don't want to go home," the teacher opens his mouth and says, "Don't mind the adults' business and just study hard."”； Many parents still think that "what kind of trouble can children have?" Last time, a mother brought her daughter who was in the first grade of junior high school to consult. As soon as she entered the door, she scolded her child for being shameless for falling in love early. At the end of the conversation, they found out that the girl had been accused of pornography at school and did not dare to tell her family. She just found a senior boy to help her. The parents' scolding almost made the child jump off the building. ； There are also many places where the community psychology stations are just decorations. The sign has been up for a year and there are not even any serious psychological counselors.

Seriously, how can there be any vigorous "protective action"? It's just that when parents find that their children suddenly stop talking, don't come up and scold them, "Why are you having such a tantrum?" and ask more, "Have you encountered something?"” ； It's just that when the teacher notices that the child's grades have suddenly dropped, don't rush to ask the parents first, first ask if there have been any changes at home recently. ； It's just that when the community sees a child squatting alone on the roadside crying, he stops and waits for an extra two minutes to ask if he needs help. These inconspicuous little things put together form a big net for children.