Fu Xiaolan, director of the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. (Photo: VCG)

The Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences released its first "Blue Book on Mental Health" with the report "China National Mental Health Development Report (2017-2018)". The report showed that the vast majority of our national’s mental health is in a good condition and the urban population presented a better overall performance than the rural population.

Fu Xiaolan, director of the institute, said that the “Blue Book on Mental Health” was based on large-scale mental health surveys over the last three years, discussing the current situation, developing trends and influencing factors of mental health of different groups of people in China, so as to draw suggestions on further maintaining and improving the mental health status of the nation.

Chen Zhiyan, deputy editor-in-chief of the report and professor at the institute, said that the Blue Book showed that most people in China's urban areas have good mental health, with only a few people having different degrees of mental health problems; while the mental health status of the rural population is generally worse than that of the urban population.

The report also investigated the mental health characteristics and changing trends based on different factors. For example, surveys for adolescents and children showed that migrant and left-behind children score higher in anxiety, depression and loneliness than in ordinary children.

According to Chen, the survey showed that there is a great demand for improving mental health in our country, and the relevant services provided at present are very limited. It is suggested that we should develop and promote mental health assessment standards and specific tools as soon as possible, continuously monitor national mental health literacy, and vigorously support and strengthen mental health science in less developed areas. In addition, mental health skills training should be gradually integrated into compulsory courses in universities, middle and primary schools, and neighborhood communities should take mental health science education courses, to continuously improve the national mental health literacy of our country.

Fu added that, at present, the mental health work in our country is moving from rapid growth to a new stage of increasing standardization, and gradually evolving from relying on Western research tools to the application of self-developed tools to carry out a targeted assessment on the psychological health level of our own people.

"A basic understanding of the mental health status of the nation is an important basis for guiding mental health services," she said, “it is hoped that this Blue Book will provide a significant reference to the relevant work of the State and the government. ”