Experts call for building socialist psychological service system in China

In the 15 years since the devastating 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake, China has made significant strides in mental crisis intervention and mental health services. Psychologists at a forum held in Mianyang, Sichuan province, on May 11-12 emphasized the need for a socialist psychological service system with Chinese characteristics to further improve the spiritual well-being of the Chinese people and their quality of life.

"Adhering to the principle of putting people at the center, efforts should be made to continuously meet the growing needs of the people for a better life and new expectations for spiritual civilization construction," said Li Hong, former chairman of the Chinese psychological Society.

The third Beichuan International Forum on Psychology, jointly held by the Southwest University of Science and Technology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Psychology, brought together over 100 psychology experts and scholars from six countries to explore and exchange experiences and lessons learned in disaster mental crisis intervention and social psychological services.

As outlined in the 20th Party Congress report, Chinese modernization is the modernization of common prosperity for all. To help low-income groups achieve this goal, psychologists are one of the best positioned to address this issue, said Guo Yongyu, a professor at the School of Psychology, Nanjing Normal University.

"The most critical element in establishing a sustainable mechanism to solve relative poverty is to ignite the intrinsic drive to overcome it," he said. "We must fully engage impoverished communities and stimulate their initiative, creativity, and motivation to overcome poverty from within."

Chen Xuefeng, deputy director at the Institute of Psychology, the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, proposed to build an emergency psychological service system in China.

"In China's unique emergency response system, the emergency psychological service system is an indispensable and organic component, which is an important task to ensure the people's sense of gain, happiness, and security," she said.

China's emergency psychological services have developed for nearly 30 years and accumulated rich practical experience, which can provide a solid foundation for constructing a distinctive Chinese emergency psychological service system and offering valuable experience for other countries in addressing their respective issues, she added.

The Beichuan International Forum on Psychology has progressed since 2019 based on a decade of experience in psychological assistance following the Wenchuan Earthquake and has received strong support from psychology experts and scholars from renowned universities and research institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Macao Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Taiwan and the Chinese mainland.