258. Improving social psychological service functions: a study on the psychological intervention policy system IN public crises
Year: 2026
Type: conference-abstract
Abstract: Background Public crisis events, such as major public health emergencies, natural disasters, and sudden accidents, often trigger collective psychological stress responses, including anxiety, depression, panic, and declining social trust. Surveys indicate that during the peak of public crises, 25%–40% of affected populations experience moderate to severe psychological distress, with some groups facing persistent risks. Existing responses mainly emphasize emergency management and medical treatment, while social psychological services show insufficient policy coordination, fragmented functions, and uneven coverage. Therefore, this study reviews relevant policy documents and local implementation practices, and combines surveys of residents’ psychological status and service accessibility to examine the relationship between social psychological service functions and intervention effectiveness. The study aims to construct a public crisis psychological intervention policy framework to enhance public governance resilience and risk prevention capacity. Methods This study employed a mixed-methods approach combining policy text analysis and questionnaire surveys. A total of 42 national- and provincial-level policy documents related to social psychological services and public crisis management issued between 2015 and 2024 were coded and analyzed. In addition, 624 residents from three regions that had experienced major public crises were surveyed to assess psychological status and service accessibility, using a mental health self-report scale and a risk perception scale. Descriptive statistics and multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between the level of social psychological service development and residents’ psychological recovery, with statistical significance set at p<.05. Results The findings show that the frequency of key terms such as “psychological intervention,” “social support,” and “risk communication” in policy documents increased significantly after 2020; however, policy coordination and implementation specificity remained relatively weak. Survey results revealed that regions with higher coverage of social psychological services exhibited lower levels of anxiety and depression, with a psychological distress detection rate of 18.7%, significantly lower than the 32.4% observed in regions with lower service coverage (p<.01). Regression analysis indicated that service accessibility, community participation mechanisms, and the availability of professional personnel were significant predictors of psychological recovery, jointly explaining 41.6% of the variance in psychological outcomes. In particular, the degree of standardization in community-level psychological intervention mechanisms was positively correlated with reductions in psychological risk (r = 0.52, p<.01). Discussion The study demonstrates that improving social psychological service functions can effectively mitigate population-level psychological risks during public crises, with policy coordination and grassroots implementation capacity playing central roles. Strengthening risk communication, community-based psychological support, and professional service integration can significantly enhance the timeliness and effectiveness of psychological interventions. Current policies still require further optimization in cross-sector collaboration, service standardization, and equitable resource allocation. Future efforts should promote the transition of social psychological services from emergency-based responses to a model of routine governance, while integrating digital psychological assessment and dynamic monitoring tools to build a full-cycle psychological intervention policy system for public crises. Overall, enhancing social psychological service functions holds substantial practical significance and policy value for strengthening public crisis governance capacity and maintaining social stability.
Source: Schizophrenia Bulletin
Author: Ge Zhao
Institution: Ningbo University
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7128811094
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