Youth Health Promotion Center

In essence, the Youth Health Promotion Center is neither a traditional public health education site nor a branch extension of a specialized medical institution, but a youth health service hub that connects schools, families, and the medical system. The core solution is the pain point of the past youth health problems of "no unified port for screening, no connection path for intervention, and no clear subject of responsibility."

Last year, I stayed at the youth promotion centers in three districts of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai to do research. I stayed there for half a year and I felt very deeply about this. What impressed me the most was a boy in the second grade of junior high school. He sprained his foot during the physical examination. Instead of sending him directly to the hospital, the class teacher first took him to the youth promotion center next to the school. When the rehabilitation therapist was applying emergency cold compress, he casually asked, "Why are you so slow to react? Have you been staying up late lately?" ”, just chatting casually, they found out that this child has been playing games until two o'clock in the morning for three consecutive months every day, and his grades have dropped by more than 40 places due to being distracted in class. The parents thought he was just rebellious in adolescence. After treating his foot injury that day, the rehabilitation therapist immediately made an appointment with the psychological counseling team at the center and sent a customized home sleep management plan to the parents. In less than forty minutes, he connected all three problems of sports injuries, sleep disorders, and emotional deviations that were originally sent to three different agencies. In the past, I would go to the orthopedic department to register for treatment, indulge in games and seek lectures from my class teacher, and my emotional problems would either be ignored or I would have to go to the mental health center myself. This is a big detour, and when information is not available, it is easy to turn a small problem into a big trouble.

Interestingly, there is currently no unified consensus on the core functional positioning of youth promotion centers in the industry. Two groups of practitioners have been arguing for almost three years and still have no conclusion. One group comes from the public health system and believes that the core task of the youth promotion center is to conduct universal screening. It must collect all the data on the vision, scoliosis, mental health, and nutritional status of all primary and secondary school students in the jurisdiction, and establish a unified youth health file. Early detection and early intervention are enough. This is what the center in Longgang, Shenzhen, does. Last year, it screened 120,000 school students, and more than 8,000 positive cases of scoliosis were screened, 70% of which were mild. Timely intervention does not require surgery at all, and the efficiency is more than ten times higher than scattered clinics in hospitals. The other group is people who have a background in grassroots services. They feel that it is useless to just accumulate a lot of data. To be real, they have to implement and provide accessible services. The center in Jinjiang, Chengdu, directly opened an "after-school health care class", accepting children who were not picked up after school from 4:30 to 6:30 in the afternoon. 20 minutes of spinal exercises and distance training were inserted between homework assignments. The psychological teacher was in class throughout the class. Children can talk about emotional problems on the spot. They also opened a free parent-child communication workshop. People in this group always say, "You screen out a thousand short-sighted children, and the parents don't have time to take them to get glasses or make corrections. In the end, isn't the data just a piece of waste paper lying on the server?" ”. In fact, there is no need to argue about right or wrong now. Both models have achieved good results, and there is no need to establish unified national standards.

Of course, there are still only a few people who have passed the mode, and youth promotion centers in more places are still stepping into the trap. I have seen many places that just hang a sign, and there is only a desk and a stack of brochures in the office. They hold two "Healthy on Campus" leaflet distribution activities throughout the year. It is a complete empty shell. ； In other places, in order to cooperate with commercial organizations to meet KPIs, they sell vision correction devices and spinal correction belts worth several thousand yuan to parents after screening, which in turn damages the reputation. To be honest, the biggest problem is the lack of personnel. There are too few comprehensive talents who understand both adolescent psychology and public health management, and can communicate smoothly with schools and parents. Many center staff are temporarily seconded from disease control and hospitals. One person has to manage the health data of tens of thousands of students, which is too busy for one person.

Last week I had dinner with Director Zhang of Shanghai Yangpu Youth Promotion Center. He said that after working for four years, he still had no idea what the organization would eventually look like. Anyway, he was just trying to cross the river by feeling for the stones. Today, if a child is addicted to games, he would set up an anti-addiction group. If he found that a student has a lot of scoliosis tomorrow, he would set up a rehabilitation training camp. How can he help the child? What I am saying is that for teenage children, health involves many physical, psychological, and environmental dimensions. There is no standardized answer. It is a good thing if the gaps can be repaired.