Social stigma of seeking therapeutic help still prevalent in China, says expert

The Star

In the wake of a spate of mass attacks in China that saw two car ramming incidents and multiple knife attacks throughout the year, psychotherapist Sami Wong emphasises the complicated challenges people face.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00With this kind of like sudden incident, it definitely not having one contributing factors.

00:16So given that people are still adjusting themselves after the pandemic, dealing with financial

00:21pressures and social changes, and also all the post-traumatic effects coming out from

00:27the pandemic, and I think they're still finding it very challenging to deal with it and to

00:32manage it.

00:33So I think it's very important to understand that how much they can better manage themselves

00:38emotionally and also mentally.

00:40I think after the pandemic, different governments, they already becoming very aware of all the

00:46mental challenges that arise from the pandemic, especially with the trauma they experience.

00:52So I believe that the system has been supportive enough and continue to be very supportive.

00:59But what's really lacking right now is really this education of how important emotional

01:05well-being is to us.

01:06And I believe that a lot of people still kind of having this social stigma of seeking therapeutic

01:13help.

01:14So even though the resources are there, they're very reluctant to use it.

01:18So I believe that psychoeducation is really the fundamental step that we need to consider

01:24before providing more service that nobody will actually come and use.

01:28So yes, being open-minded to this kind of service and support is really the positive

01:34sign of our younger generation.

01:37I believe that people really need to talk about the impact, you know, that this kind

01:42of event that have on them in their daily life, even though they're just watching the

01:47news, they're just reading the newspaper, reading the updates about this event.

01:52It doesn't mean that they're not being affected.

01:55So talk about it with their friends and family and also professional service.

02:00It's very, very important.

02:02The second thing is that really start to work on what we can do in order to promote the

02:08psychology to people in daily life.

02:11So they can start from parents, you know, from kindergartens, from teachers, basically

02:16everyone is responsible for this kind of event.

02:19No one can escape the obligations for this kind of promotion.

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