Influence of "Mental Health Law of the People's Republic of China" on psychological counseling in colleges and universities: An interview study on the heads of psychological counseling centers in colleges and universities in Beijing
10.3969/j.issn.1000-6729.2018.03.007
- VernacularTitle:《精神卫生法》对高校心理咨询工作的影响初探——对北京高校心理咨询中心负责人的访谈研究
- Author:
Chenchen ZHOU
1
;
Xiaodi GUO
;
Weixuan LI
;
Yiting ZHANG
;
Menglin LIU
;
Ya'nan SONG
;
Mingyi QIAN
Author Information
1. 北京大学心理与认知科学学院
- Keywords:
Mental Health Law;
colleges and universities in Beijing;
psychological counseling;
qualitative research
- From:Chinese Mental Health Journal
2018;32(3):220-226
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Objective:To investigate the impact of China's Mental Health Law on the work of psychological counseling in colleges and universities, and to explore ways to improve the law. Methods: Totally 12 heads of college and university counseling centers in Beijing were conducted with semi-structured interviews. The average age of the interviewees was (40 ±7) years old, with master or doctor degrees in psychology or related disciplines. The method of content analysis was used to analyze the interviewees' understanding of the " Mental Health Law". Results: All of the 12 interviewees had gained some understanding of the "Mental Health Law", and accordingly amended the regulation of their counseling centers. Also, interviewees suggested the positive and negative impacts brought by the law, such as enhancing practitioners' legislative sense, clarifying their responsibilities and boundaries as college and university counseling, as well as difficulties to distinguish psychotherapy and psychological counseling, ambiguity in the legality of working with students who were diagnosed with mental disorders. Moreover, interviewees threw out suggestions on improving the law from the aspect of industry standard, supervision department and vocational qualification. Conclusion: The execution of "Mental Health Law" improves practitioners' legislative sense, clarifies their responsibility. Nevertheless, it does not clearly distinguish psychotherapy from psychological counseling, and be lack of regulation on the psychological counseling industry.
