Psychological Self Aid (PSA) for Chinese University Students

Our Team

• Associate Professor Wendy Li (Team Leader, JCU)
• Professor Brett McDermott (JCU)
• Professor Xiaoyan Liang (Shanxi University, China)
• Dr Yang Qi (Taiyuan Psychiatric Hospital, China)

The Project

In 2017, A/Prof Wendy Li and Prof Brett McDermott of the AusAsian Mental Health Research Group (AMHRG) and research partners of Shanxi University and Taiyuan Psychiatric Hospital in China worked together to promote mental health among university students by organising five mental health seminars for university students. More than 1,000 students attended, many of whom showed little knowledge about mental health.

Subsequently AMHRG researchers collaborated with Chinese colleagues Prof Xiaoyan Liang of at Shanxi University and Dr Yang Qi of Taiyuan Psychiatric Hospital to design the ‘Psychological Self Aid (PSA) for Chinese University Students’ project, aiming to help students tackle negative moods, improve mental health knowledge, confidence, attitudes and coping behaviours; to reduce the risk of developing mental health disorders. PSA provides a four-unit PSA program for university students in China: 1) Mental health literacy: Mental health across the lifespan; 2) Understanding yourself; 3) Psychological resilience and mindfulness; and 4) Music and mental health – Drum circle. The proposed research project is to evaluate the effectiveness of the PSA program.

To acknowledge A/Prof Wendy Li’s and Prof Brett McDermott’s contribution to Chinese mental health, Shanxi University and Taiyuan Psychiatric Hospital in 2017 appointed Dr Wendy Li and Dr Brett McDermott as Visiting Professors.

Visit our AMHRG image gallery for the full collection of photographs of our project team and activities.