Chongqing- If the epidemic is rain, counseling psychology is like an umbrella, said a Chongqing City Management College student, where the first reported local cases appeared in the current outbreak. 

To alleviate students' panic caused by the epidemic and effectively relieve anxiety and depression, the related department organized an experts' team to conduct mental health counseling for students. 

Chongqing citizens take nucleic acid tests in an orderly manner. (Photo/ Chongqing High-tech Zone Media Center)

Students psychological prevention 

Since the emergence of the COVID-19 local cases in Chongqing City Management College, the related department quickly set up a comprehensive psychological safety protection network for students in quarantine.

Psychological counseling online lectures and hotlines are two primary measures adopted. 

As of March 24, more than 400 students have consulted through different means, for example, via video link, voice calls, or text messages, finding it's helpful to ease their negative emotions. 

The higher institution also launched a 14-day emotion diary writing program for students who are quarantined outside the college in an effort to increase their positive emotional experience and sense of well-being. Now it has attracted nearly 200 people to participate in the program. 

In addition to the colleges' students, 32 anti-epidemic psychological counseling hotlines have been opened to all of the minors who need counseling, tutoring, and referral services. 

All these psychological prevention methods have proved adequate to the target group. 

One of the college's students said that some classmates suffered from insomnia, anxiety, and poor mental condition during the epidemic. Thanks to these online psychological counseling, many of them lessened the mental burden and began to face the outbreak calmly. 

The official website of Chongqing minor mental health service platform. (iChongqing/ Chen Zhan)

A mental health service platform 

During the epidemic, a particular public platform focused on minor mental health draws the teenagers' attention, called Sweet Tiger (Tiantianhu in Chinese).

2022 is the year of the tiger in the Chinese zodiac, and this cartoon image is explicitly designed to meet the minors' characteristics, with a strong heart, qualities of strength, and bravery, like a tiger. 

It is China's first provincial intelligent information platform to provide mental health counseling for minors. 

In this current outbreak, the platform opened a special psychological zone with a batch of short mental science videos and high-quality expert lectures to protect children's mental health. Many children reaped its benefits. 

"Sweet tiger is my new good friend who can teach me many things," said a third-grade student in Dadukou District. 

Online learning renders excellent mental education accessible to children in this special period. It not only helped them face the epidemic with optimism but also learned how to communicate with their parents.