The voices of reason
Hardworking counselors all over the country offer lifeline to people in mental, emotional distress amid pandemic
Mental health service hotline operator Su Wei will never forget a call he received from a woman in Wuhan, Hubei province, when the city was mired in the battle against the first COVID-19 outbreak.
He was one of the nearly 100 counselors around the country working for the 12355 hotline specifically assigned to offer support and address the psychological needs of people in Wuhan during the peak of the outbreak in early 2020.
Besides working as a counselor, he is also in charge of the operation of the 12355 Beijing service program.
It was around midnight, and when he picked up the phone he could hear the sound of wind.
“It was a woman in her late 20s. She said she was on top of a makeshift hospital and that she could not get hold of herself,” Su recalled.
“She, her husband and their child had been separated and were in three different places. Although calling each other every day and knowing they were fine, she still worried about them. What’s worse, she suffered from depression, but there was no medicine,” the 47-year-old counselor said, adding that he could feel her desperation.
Trying to keep his tone even, as if chatting with an old friend, Su began to ask her about her living environment and whether there were volunteers to help. The woman said the environment was not good, but every volunteer had been kind and nice to her, even though they were overworked and exhausted, with the volume of patients far outweighing the staff capacity.
“Talking about the surrounding environment and the kindness given to her by the people around her was the turning point. Her focus was transformed from her own desperation to the present moment, which helped her find motivation and meaning in life,” Su said, adding that all he wanted to do on the call was to keep her connected as long as possible, until someone found her.
“I told her that there were numerous people across the country like me who cared about people in Wuhan and she was not alone. I promised that, after the call, I would contact local authorities as soon as possible to get the medicine she needed,” he said.
Upon hearing other people’s voices and a door opening over the phone, Su felt relieved, knowing that his strategy had worked. It was a volunteer coming to the roof to look for her, because she was not in bed.
“When she told me she was sorry and had to hang up, I was quite happy, not because of what I did, but because the call helped her realize there were many people ready to help and support her,” Su said, smiling.
The World Health Organization estimates that 54 million people in China suffer from depression, and about 41 million suffer from anxiety. The COVID-19 outbreak has exacerbated the situation.
While a number of nationwide online mental health services have been established since the start of the pandemic, 12355 is a hotline that was set up by the Communist Youth League of China in the early 2000s. It has thousands of counselors, like Su,
available to offer those in need timely mental health support.
From Jan 13 to May 16, the Beijing hotline alone received more than 5,400 calls, with more than 100 calls a day at the peak, according to Su. The center has about 60 operators. It usually provides free hotline services
from 9 am to 5 pm, seven days a week.
“As a hotline counselor, our work is to provide hope and encouragement to callers,” Su said.
Since Beijing implemented strict measures to curb the pandemic in early May, Ma Junwei, an operator at the Beijing 12355 hotline, has worked
around the clock answering a surge of calls.
“Every day, an operator can get about 12 calls on average, and most calls last over half an hour, which means there is no time for lunch,” said the 37-year-old counselor.
A major in psychology from Northeast Normal University, Ma, after graduating in 2012, worked at China Women’s University in Beijing before becoming a psychological consultant at Beijing Youth Service Center in 2018. Later, she became a volunteer operator at the 12355 hotline, specializing in helping adolescents.
“Before working at 12355, I was used to face-to-face consultations, from which you could glean information through various means, such as body language and facial expressions; but over the telephone the information is limited,” Ma said.
“One advantage about the hotline is the convenience and privacy — you can anonymously dial the number anytime, anywhere you want,” she said.
She describes herself as a “listener” who is there to help people identify their emotions, such as sadness, fury and anxiety, and to explore why those emotions are present and find ways to cope with them.
“About one-fourth of the calls I receive are from students at high school mainly facing issues pertaining to their relationship with parents and anxiety about exams,” Ma said.
Once, a high school student called, complaining that her father did not understand her.
“She made the call while walking along a lake, which for me was a dangerous sign. The trigger for her breakdown was a small dispute with her father. One of her classmates was going to study abroad and she wanted to make a goodbye gift, but her father said it was a waste of time,” Ma said, adding that she suggested writing a letter as a way to build a communication bridge between the daughter and father.
That girl is not alone. According to a report on national mental health development in China, published by the Institute of Psychology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in March last year and covering the period 2019-20, the detected rate of depression among Chinese adolescents in 2020 was 24.6 percent, including 17.2 percent with mild depression and 7.4 percent classed as severe.
The report said factors including pressure imposed by families, inappropriate parenting styles and influences from the surrounding environment could lead to depression among juveniles.
According to a study published in British medical journal Translational Psychiatry in March last year, depression and anxiety was common among adolescents in China during the initial COVID-19 outbreak and their prevalence increased significantly six weeks later, even though the outbreak was relatively under control.
Factors such as the impact of financial issues on parental behaviors, potential intensification of social isolation and loneliness, and cumulative pressure of long-term online learning due to COVID-19 resurgence can increase the risk of mental health problems among adolescents. Therefore, the researchers hypothesized that the prevalence of depression and anxiety would further increase among Chinese adolescents over time.
Ma echoes this, noting that it is a challenging time, and that she has been receiving an increasing number of calls from students feeling a loss of control after their TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) or GRE (Graduate Record Examinations) exams have been postponed or even canceled.
As for Su, he knows how difficult it is for some students, especially the ones who are taking the national college entrance exam this year. His son is taking the exam this June.
In a bid to alleviate the pressure felt by the youth to get good scores in the exam, counselors at Beijing 12355 have launched online sessions to help students, parents and schools navigate the tough time. Some sessions have been viewed more than 100,000 times.
“The hotline is just a small part of providing support. We need all parties, including communities, the government and individuals, to get involved in making mental health care accessible,” Su said.