The National Health Commission announced at a press conference on the afternoon of the 25th that the department has set up a nationwide unified psychological assistance hotline "12356". According to the requirements, strive to put it into operation around the Spring Festival or New Year's Day in 2025, and ensure that the function of calling the "12356" phone number to connect to the psychological assistance hotline is achieved before 0:00 on May 1, 2025. Xing Ruoqi, Deputy Director of the Medical Administration Department of the National Health Commission, said at a press conference: "If the public wants to consult about mental health knowledge or has psychological distress or emotional problems, they can call '12356'. We have professional hotline counselors to provide public welfare services." The National Health Commission requires health administrative departments at all levels to increase training, supervision and guidance, strengthen professional team building, answer psychological assistance hotlines in accordance with relevant requirements, and provide services such as mental health education, psychological counseling, and psychological crisis intervention. Actively promote the establishment of a linkage mechanism between psychological assistance and service hotlines such as 110, 119, and 120, as well as comprehensive governance and stability maintenance work, to enhance the effectiveness of psychological assistance. After the "12356" hotline number is put into use, various regions should promptly increase the number of seats as needed, strengthen the construction and allocation of professional personnel teams, and improve the response rate and service quality. At the same time, each region should set a certain transitional period based on actual conditions to ensure that both the original hotline number and "12356" can be connected. The mental health of teenagers affects the hearts of every family. The internet once popularized the saying that the incidence of depression among teenagers has reached 15% to 20%. In response to this, Xie Bin, Secretary of the Party Committee of the Shanghai Mental Health Center, explicitly stated at a press conference that this data is a rumor. According to authoritative epidemiological investigations, the prevalence of depression among adolescents in China is around 2%. Xie Bin stated that professional institutions take the lead in organizing national or regional epidemiological investigations, disease screening, and disease registration reports, which require strict representative sampling. However, some self collected data on the internet only comes from individuals who have symptoms or expect to seek help, which leads to data bias and cannot represent the real situation among the general population. Xie Bin said that some reports mention the detection rate of depression, but what is detected is not true depression or depressive disorders, but common negative emotions that may be related to excessive stress or long-term poor sleep, staying up late, endocrine disorders, etc. These are transient states, and depression requires specialized doctors to make comprehensive professional judgments based on diagnostic criteria. Next, the National Health Commission will guide medical and health institutions, including general hospitals and specialized hospitals such as children's hospitals, to establish psychological counseling clinics and psychological health service centers for the public, further expanding the supply of psychological health services. At the same time, carry out training on mental health related knowledge and skills for medical personnel, improve their ability to identify, screen, and intervene in mental health problems, and promote medical personnel to pay more attention to mental health issues while treating physical illnesses for patients. (New Society)