Several cities in Shandong are adjusting their youth mental health service strategies following suggestions from the public on the "People's Suggestions" platform. The approaches in Weihai and Dezhou reflect a shift from reactive response to proactive prevention.
In Weihai, an adopted public suggestion led to the establishment of a "home-school-community collaboration" school social worker model. This model brings professional social workers into schools to participate in psychological screening, emotional counseling, crisis intervention, and family education guidance. The total number of school social workers in Weihai has now exceeded 1,100. Prior concerns were raised that school resources alone were insufficient to address issues such as academic pressure, adolescent emotions, parent-child communication, and interpersonal relationships.
Another suggestion addressed the mental needs of children in difficult circumstances. Despite improvements in basic living support, factors such as family changes and lack of guardianship may still cause emotional fluctuations or social difficulties. Weihai's measures, formed through suggestions, include routine mental health screening by child supervisors and child directors, establishment of dynamic files, and collaboration with psychological volunteers for counseling and guidance.
In Dezhou, a public suggestion proposed building a digital youth mental health monitoring platform to enhance risk identification through universal screening, dynamic tracking, graded alerts, and closed-loop intervention. The suggestion also called for government procurement of services to guide professional resources toward grassroots and underdeveloped areas, constructing a full chain from daily guidance to professional correction.
These explorations originated from concentrated public appeals on the "People's Suggestions" platform to improve youth psychological services, covering areas such as care for children in difficulty, campus mental health education, and empowerment for growth.