Children's mental health bulletin content

Abandon the empty mental health sermons, and target three audiences: children, parents, and teachers at the same time. Use visual, low-threshold, and non-judgmental content to convey the core understanding that "there are no right or wrong emotions, and there is no shame in asking for help." Attached is an observation list and help-seeking channels that can be implemented. There is no need to be fancy, and effectiveness is the first priority.

A while ago, I just made this series of blackboard posters for three primary schools under the jurisdiction of the street. I went through many pitfalls and gained some practical experience. At first, we followed the traditional approach and wanted to put a long paragraph on the importance of children's mental health, and also found a lot of quotes from experts. However, when we were making prototypes, we found a few fourth-grade children to look at it. They took one look at it and ran away, saying, "It's like our school rules and they are too lazy to read."

At that time, there were quite obvious differences in the project team: one group was teachers from the education system, who felt that "correct guidance" should be emphasized and clearly list for children what emotions are right and wrong, and how to correct them.； The other group is our social workers who do clinical consultation. They believe that the first thing to do is to get rid of the stigma. According to the perspective of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), suppressing emotions will lead to more serious psychological problems. Rather than letting children "learn to control emotions", it is much more important to first let them "learn to accept emotions." In the end, we didn't argue about who was right and who was wrong. We simply split the content into several sections that didn't need to be distinguished. Anyway, everyone can find what they want to see at a glance.

The parts for children are all comics, not even large paragraphs of text are added. For example, I drew a little boy with clenched fists and a blushing face, with the words "It's okay to hit the pillow when you are angry, just don't hit yourself or others", and a little girl squatting in a corner crying, with the words "Don't force yourself to smile when you are sad, just don't talk if you don't want to". Oh, yes, there is also a little easter egg. It depicts a child who is distracted in class, with Ultraman and ice cream floating next to it, and the words "It's normal to be dazed occasionally, as long as it doesn't affect others." Don't tell me, last time I went to school to follow up, I saw several children gathered around that finger and said, "I was distracted yesterday thinking about my cat." I didn't feel embarrassed at all. Didn't this achieve the goal?

We didn’t write a blunt title like “Instructions for Parents” in the section for adults. We just called it “Tips for Adults.” The content is all about high-frequency misunderstandings that we have discovered through thousands of consultation cases. The sentence marked in red is "Stop saying, "What's the point of crying about this little thing?" It's a little thing to you, but it means the whole world to him." In response to the statement that "children's rebellion is all the parents' problem" that is currently very loud on the Internet, we have also objectively listed the different views of the academic community: "The field of developmental psychology currently generally believes that "talking back, being disobedient, and having their own little secrets" in children aged 7-12 is a normal manifestation of the development of autonomous consciousness. As long as there is no depression, abnormal sleep or eating, or social avoidance that lasts for more than two weeks, there is no need to be overly anxious, and there is no need to rush to correct it." Attached is a simple self-check list with only 4 items. If the warning signs are met, then go see a professional. If the warning signs are not met, do whatever you want. Don't scare yourself.

Oh, by the way, we also deliberately added a small design that no one asked for: a row of small tear-off sticky notes at the bottom of the blackboard. Half of it printed the free psychological assistance hotline for minors in the district, and the other half printed "If you really don't want to tell the adults around you, scan this code and we will keep it secret for you." Behind it is the encrypted consultation applet of our social work station, and the content will never be notified to the school and parents. With this small, palm-sized design, we have received more than 20 requests for help from children in the past three months. Some said they were bullied at school and did not dare to tell their parents, and some said they were too stressed about exams and could not sleep for half a month. It is really much more useful than large paragraphs of publicity.

In fact, there is really no unified standard for making this kind of blackboard. Some schools like to make it colorful, while others like it to be simple. The core is not to stand at a high place and look down. Whether it is for children or adults, it must speak human words, and don't use those empty-headed terms - for example, don't write "vent your emotions reasonably", just write "you can run two laps on the playground when you are angry, no one will say you are wrong", it's that simple.