The 19th National Congress of CPC stated that we must remain true to our founding mission, hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects, strive for the great victory of socialism with Chinese characteristics for the new era, and work tirelessly to realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.
Winning the battle of poverty alleviation reflects the original intention and mission of the Communist Party of China. In the battle of poverty alleviation, staff members of Southwest Jiaotong University are also actively contributing their wisdom and strength. Professor Ning Weiwei, secretary of the Party branch of the Psychological Research and Counseling Center, attended the first Sichuan Expert-intelligence Grass-roots Service Forum and made a typical speech
Targeted Poverty Alleviation: Psychological education contributes to both mental and spiritual development.
The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized that "we should adhere to the pattern of poverty alleviation and pay attention to the combination of poverty alleviation with support for aspirations and intelligence". The year 2019 is a crucial year to win the fight against poverty in order to achieve the general secretary’s goal of not leaving a single poor household behind in 2020. Sichuan, as a large province with a population of nearly 100 million, has 66 national poverty-stricken counties and 22 provincial poverty-stricken counties. Therefore, Sichuan is facing great challenges in poverty alleviation. Digging out the roots of poverty requires not only capital, but also "will and wisdom". As the Chinese saying goes, “Though one is poor, he has lofty aspirations”. To help the poor and get rid of poverty, we must first solve the ideological problems and uproot the "roots of poverty". "It is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish." Shaking off poverty and live a well-off life requires intellectual support. Only by "supporting with both aspiration and wisdom" can we stimulate the endogenous motivation of the people in poverty-stricken areas and encourage and guide them to create a happy life with their own hands.
1. The Grassroots Call for Psychological Help
As a member of the Sichuan Provincial Expert Service Group, I deeply feel the urgently need of mental health education by the grassroots people during the intellectual assistance activities in poverty alleviation points in cities, prefectures, counties, and ethnic areas. There are still many left-behind children, children from single-parent families and divorced families in those poverty-stricken areas. The lack of warm experiences in childhood will continue to affect their future. Their growth needs psychological guidance and education. According to the needs of Da'an District of Zigong City, in the presence of the leaders of the Provincial Expert Service Center, an agreement was signed with Da'an District Education and Sports Bureau to support the mental health education system in primary and secondary schools.
To give children a healthy family environment for their growth, we should also change their parents' ideas, especially their grandparents' ideas. For these left-behind children, it is more difficult to change their grandparents’ old ideas. To many people, health simply means eating and sleeping well. They have no idea about mental health and potential development. Therefore, it is necessary to popularize mental health knowledge for parents who lack cultural vision in a language they can understand. Let them realize the importance of family environment to their children's growth, and let them realize that knowledge can change their children’s destiny. For parents, the most basic thing is to ensure their children's education and become their role models. Parents should lead by example and teach by words and deeds. Parents should pay attention to their children's mental health education and respect their views. Material satisfaction is not enough to help their children become talented. As the guides of their children, parents should communicate with their children about their life experience, and strive to create a good and warm family environment for their children, so as to cultivate their children into persons who love life, earn their own living, and contribute to the society.
2. Mental Health Education Is Promising
In the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, it is clearly proposed to strengthen the construction of social psychological service system, cultivate an innovative social governance concept of self-respect, self-confidence, rationality, calm and positive social mentality, and set an even higher goal of mental health. All this heralds the arrival of the spring of mental health education and service in China.
The World Health Organization defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease and infirmity." This definition reveals the importance of mental health. Compared with physical health, people's understanding of mental health is still insufficient, and our culture still has prejudice and "shame" on psychological problems. This calls for unremitting efforts of health workers on scientific popularization.
At present, the main forces of psychological research and mental health education in China are concentrated in colleges and universities, provincial key research bases of philosophy and social sciences, and other professional institutions. Those professional organizations should have a strong sense of social responsibilities, live up to their missions, and play an active role in the construction of mental health education service system in China in the new era. It is necessary to keep in mind the general secretary's expectation, strengthen the theoretical and practical research on mental health problems with Chinese characteristics in the new period, do a good job in popularizing mental health knowledge, and give full play to the role of think tank in the construction of social psychological service system.
The construction of social psychological service system is inseparable from the cultivation of mental health culture. In 2011, we took the lead in putting forward the psychological and cultural innovation and practice system of "love yourself". It is in fact the psychological culture of young college students with "love yourself" as its core connotation and "sunshine, tenacity, creativity and gratitude" as its specific connotation. This psychological and cultural innovation activity of "love yourself" has gone beyond colleges and universities and entered communities and enterprises. It has received recognition and positive responses from all walks of life. In 2016, it was awarded the special prize for outstanding achievements in campus culture.
3. Experience and Suggestions
The intellectual support platform of Sichuan Expert Service Team should focus on the main line of accurate poverty alleviation, serve the national and provincial development strategy, and actively guide experts to break the technical bottleneck of grassroots development. All this can not only meet the urgent developmental needs of poverty-stricken areas, but also provide an effective way to put intellectual achievements into practice. At the same time, it can also unite all kinds of professional talents with passion, courage, and special fighting ability. This is the institutional and practical innovation of expert intelligence service in the new period.
Suggestions:
We should further improve the expert intelligence service system. We should not only meet the needs of grassroots intelligence service, but also carry out top-level design and overall planning in accordance with the strategic objectives of provincial and national development.
We should put the role of expert think tank into full play. Experts can not only provide intelligence support for the grassroots, but also have first-hand grassroots research materials because they go deep into the grassroots and serve the grassroots. The provincial expert service center can play the role of a think tank platform that can report the grassroots situation to the higher authorities and pool the wisdom of experts.
We should build an expert intelligence service online network platform. On the one hand, it can provide timely and convenient intellectual services for grass-roots units. On the other hand, it can also expand the publicity impact and build an expert intellectual service brand with Sichuan characteristics and Chinese style.
