Mental Health Blue Book 2025 Edition

First, the overall differentiation trend has further widened. The mental health compliance rate of urban residents increased by 3.2 percentage points compared with 2023 to 78.9%, but the compliance rate of county and rural residents dropped by 1.7 percentage points to 56.2%.； Second, young people aged 14-35 and young people aged 60-75 have become bipolar risk groups. The positive rates of depression screening for these two groups have reached 18.3% and 15.7% respectively, an increase of more than 4 percentage points from two years ago. ； Third, the adaptation rate between the existing public psychological service supply and the actual needs of the people is only 36.8%. It is a lightweight intervention model that does not require long-term consultation and can be embedded in daily scenarios. The input-output ratio is 3.7 times that of traditional case consultation. It is the most cost-effective solution at this stage.

The above data is not calculated by sitting in an office. Last year, I followed the research team to 37 research sites in 12 provinces and cities, from electronics factory dormitories in Suzhou to high-end retirement communities in Guangzhou, from county middle schools in Harbin to the Internet Industrial Park in Chengdu. The conclusions were collected from nearly 40,000 valid questionnaires and more than 1,200 hours of in-depth interviews. I have stepped through many pitfalls and seen many unexpected real situations.

I was particularly impressed by the on-site survey in Suzhou Industrial Park. We distributed questionnaires next to the employee dormitories. Many post-00 workers secretly wiped their eyes while filling out the emotion scale. They worked two 12-hour shifts every day and watched short videos during their breaks. There was no one to whom they could express their true feelings. When asked if they had ever thought about psychological counseling, many people waved their hands and said, "It's hundreds an hour, how much can I earn in a day?" Besides, I'm not sick, why should I see a psychiatrist? ”Interestingly, we later placed several "Emotional Tree Hole" signboards at the entrance of the campus cafeteria. By scanning the QR code, you can anonymously post complaints. We have a part-time psychologist in the background to respond every day. We also hold a free outdoor Frisbee game once a week. In just two months, the positive depression rate among workers has dropped by 6 percentage points, which is much better than we expected.

After the incident came back, the research group quarreled for half a month. Several teachers with clinical consulting background felt that this method "treats the symptoms but not the root cause." The core dilemma of workers is the issue of labor rights and career development. This kind of light intervention is just scratching the surface. Is this right or wrong? The protection of rights and interests must be promoted step by step. However, for those moments when you can't sleep and suddenly want to jump while standing on the balcony, there must be a place to catch it first, right? You can't tell people, "Just be patient and wait until the system is perfected."

Compared with the pressure of young people, the psychological difficulties of young people are actually deeper and easier to ignore. In the past, everyone always thought that the psychological problems of the elderly were caused by poverty and lack of material resources. This survey directly overturned this stereotype: In a hilly village in Linyi, Shandong Province, there was a 68-year-old man. His son opened a company in Qingdao, and he was given 5,000 yuan a month, so he had no worries about food and clothing. He always said that his "body hurts all over, and I went to the county hospital seven or eight times and found nothing wrong." Later, after chatting with us for half an hour, he said that his wife passed away last year, and his grandson went to junior high school without him. He sat at home every day without anyone to talk to, and "living is meaningless." What’s even more surprising is that in a high-end retirement community in Tianhe, Guangzhou, many retired professors and cadres live in single rooms and have three meals a day provided by nutritionists. However, the positive rate of depression screening is also 12%. The core reason is exactly the same as that of rural elderly people: they feel that they are useless and are causing trouble for their children.

The most controversial thing in the industry right now is how to fill the gap on the supply side. After all, there are currently only 18,700 supervisors and psychologists registered in the national registration system, 82% of whom are in universities and private institutions in first- and second-tier cities. The full-time psychological staffing rate in county public institutions is only 11%. It is simply unrealistic for you to expect these senior counselors to go to the countryside every week to provide consultation for the elderly. One group of people advocated "professional sinking" and transporting first- and second-line counselor resources to the grassroots through online free clinics and systematic training. Another group of people thought it was better to train "psychological grid workers" on the spot, teaching community and village staff how to listen, how to identify high-risk signals, how to make referrals, and equipped with simple intervention tools, such as sleep guidance audio and stress-reducing fingertip gyroscopes, which would be sufficient.

There is a county in Deyang, Sichuan that has been in trouble before. It initially hired experts from the provincial capital to provide three months of systematic training for township health center staff, who were required to learn professional content such as abnormal psychology and counseling ethics. In the end, half of the people couldn't persist and said, "It's too complicated. People come to me to complain that their children are disobedient. I can't ask them about their childhood trauma." Later, I changed my mind and taught the grid workers how to do daily chores. When I meet old people, I often ask them, "Have you played chess with your old friend recently?" To put it bluntly, these grid members are "psychological barefoot doctors" at the grassroots level. They don't need to perform complicated surgeries. They can handle headaches and fevers and know when to transfer to higher-level hospitals. With this model that seems particularly unprofessional, after half a year of implementation, the local suicide rate has dropped by 12%, and people's satisfaction is extremely high.

To be honest, I have been doing research on the psychology industry for almost 8 years. I used to think that the more professional and expensive the service, the better. But now I have discovered that the most suitable one is the best. Just like if you have a cold, you don’t need to go to Xiehe to call a specialist. You can just prescribe some cold medicine at the community hospital. The same goes for mental health. Not everyone needs long-term psychoanalysis. Some people feel comfortable chatting with the grid staff for half an hour. Some people can just do a square dance or catch a fish. Some people really need to see a professional counselor for intervention. There is no need to have a one-size-fits-all approach.

This year's blue book actually doesn't have any particularly subversive conclusions. It just turns the "unspeakable tiredness" and "loneliness no one cares about" that everyone feels vaguely at ordinary times into implementable data and suggestions. To put it bluntly, mental health has never been a high-end luxury product, nor does it need attention only when we are "sick". It is a part of our lives. Services that can make people live a down-to-earth and happy life are the best psychological services.