The project of psychological care for the elderly will cover the whole country.

On July 29, the Health China Action Office held a press conference. Li Zhixin, General Secretary of the Party branch of the Center for the Prevention and Control of Chronic Non-communicable Diseases of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at the meeting that China is the country with the largest elderly population in the world. At present, the elderly people are confronted by the elderly. The phenomenon of low awareness of mental health problems is widespread in China. The mental health of the elderly in poverty-stricken areas deserves special attention. According to Li Zhixin's introduction, the mental health status of the elderly in China is still not optimistic. The main reasons are as follows: the mental health of the elderly is susceptible to various social factors. With the increase of the age of the elderly, there will be loss of interpersonal relationship, change of living environment, family relations, social ties, marital status and other factors. The elderly are particularly prone to loneliness and prone to trigger. Older people have a variety of psychological and behavioral problems, such as depression and anxiety.

The mental health of the elderly is easily affected by their own physical health. Two important factors are long-term illness and chronic pain, both of which can seriously reduce the well-being of patients, prone to trigger such despair. Severe elderly people can lead to mental disorders. At the same time, because of the long-term bedridden illness, activities are limited, such as mental retardation, which will lead to the decline of social participation of the elderly, thus causing mental health problems. In addition, the general awareness of mental health problems among the elderly in China is not high, their own ideas and concepts are relatively solidified, their awareness of mental health problems is relatively low, and there are also some social prejudices and discrimination. Taboos, taboos, more doctors, less scientific treatment, easy to miss some of the best psychological counseling and treatment period. In response to the above problems, in March this year, the National Health Commission issued the Notice on the Implementation of Psychological Care for the Elderly, which was implemented in 1600 urban communities and 320 rural administrative villages in the country in 2019 and 2020. The project covers all provinces, districts and municipalities in the country. The main purpose of the project is to understand and grasp the needs and current situation of the mental health of the elderly in our country. The second is to improve the skill level of mental health service of grass-roots staff, that is, community staff, and enhance their early identification ability of some common psychological and behavioral problems and mental disorders. The third is to enhance the mental health awareness of the elderly and improve their mental health. In order to promote the action of health promotion for the elderly, the CDC has carried out and will soon carry out some specific work: first, organize and carry out the activities of health promotion week for the elderly, and publicize the knowledge of health for the elderly and the policies of health for the elderly. The second is to carry out health management for the elderly, which is an important part of basic public health services. By giving full play to the role of family doctors (teams), regular physical examination for the elderly can improve their health level. Thirdly, organize and carry out the elderly health trip in the west, mainly in 12 provinces and districts in the west, carry out the elderly health lecture hall, free clinic activities and so on, and some personal home-to-door service activities. At the same time, the project of psychological care for the elderly has been implemented, aiming at the existing psychological problems of the elderly, one by one, in the pilot areas, there are about 1800 community points in the city and 320 administrative villages in the countryside, where necessary intervention and referral services are provided. Fifth, the establishment of elderly friendly hospitals will be carried out to provide convenient medical services for the elderly. Sixthly, we will carry out the evaluation and comprehensive services for the disabled elderly, which will be carried out in more than a dozen provinces throughout the country.