Institutional capacity on psychological crisis intervention responding to public emergencies

Objective: To evaluate the capacity of institutions providing professional psychological crisis intervention services in response to public emergencies. To provide a scientific basis for capacity building activities. Methods: Quantitative surveys were conducted among 163 psychological health institutions in 15 city/district in 6 provinces--Liaoning, Zhejiang, Anhui, Guangdong, Chongqing, Xinjiang, plus interviews with mental health professionals involved in emergencies. Results: 61.7% of psychological health professionals were 30-50 years old, and 45.8% had university degrees. 28.0% had ability for treating post-trauma problems. On average, each institution had an annual budget of 387,000 Chinese Yuan, of which 6.7% was for psychological crisis intervention in public emergencies. 41.5% of institutions had developed specific plans for dealing with emergency psychological crisis interventions. In the past two years on average, each psychological health institution had dealt with 118.5 psychological emergencies mostly responding with individual counseling and psycho-treatment. Resources for coping with psychological crisis in the southeast area were generally superior to those in the midwest areas. Conclusion: A lack of psychological professionals with appropriate skills training, and insufficient budgets severely restrict the ability to cope with psychological crisis interventions. It is suggested that policy and environmental support for psychological health institutions be strengthened the public emergency crisis intervention system. Proposed changes are suggested.