Residents try an online test for mental stress at a promotion event for the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Changning District on Tuesday.
The city’s first online psychological counseling platform was launched in downtown Changning District on Tuesday to mark the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
The platform, named Zhi Xin Ke whichliterally means “intimate friends,” includes a website, an online counseling center, an alarm and intervention system and a mobile phone App.
Over 1,000 professional psychological counselors from over 30 institutes across the city feature on the platform, according to the Changning District government.
The government has also paid to invite seven selected institutions to offer on-site psychological services to the district’s 11 subdistricts and towns, as well as 185 neighborhood committees.
“Residents are able to take psychological tests and make reservations through the online platform,” said Zhu Weishui, an official with the Changning District Politics and Law Commission. Counseling services are being offered around the clock, both online and at community service centers and some government bodies, he added.
The platform will pay attention to drug abusers, students and those with mental illness, in order to intervene in a timely manner and prevent incidents, Zhu said.
“We have opened online and telephone support around the clock to talk and offer counseling services to those with depression,” said an official with the Shanghai Dream Dawn Support Center, one of the institutes hired by the Changning government.
Yang Jian / SHINEPsychological counselors offer free counselling services at an event for the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Changning District on Tuesday.
The center has issued leaflets at schools and communities in Changning to publicize knowledge about depression, along with a simple test chart for residents to check, she added.