Shanghai Normal University unveils AI platform to enhance mental health education

With deep integration of artificial intelligence technologies, Shanghai Normal University launched an AI training platform targeting mental health education on Thursday, aiming to enhance educators' capabilities in dealing with mental health issues and better build students' psychological resilience.

Co-developed by the university's School of Psychology and Shanghai SunResi Intelligent Technology Co Ltd, the Yuxin AI Resilience Platform is believed to be the nation's first platform of its kind. It centers on 10 practical counseling techniques that focus on eight categories of common psychological concerns among students and 10 common types of parents.

The platform addresses practical challenges such as the inadequate translation of theoretical knowledge into practical skills, limited opportunities to simulate complex educational scenarios, and insufficient training feedback. It can efficiently help teachers enhance their practical abilities to identify students' mental distress early and provide appropriate psychological support, according to the university.

Currently, mental health issues among elementary and secondary school students are increasingly challenging. Since 2023, China has introduced a slew of policies to promote mental health initiatives in schools. Mental health education is no longer the exclusive responsibility of school counselors, but a shared one for all educators.

Based on two key scenarios of student counseling and home-school communication, the platform offers professional micro-courses, specialized exercises and scenario-based simulation training. Through immersive dialogues and training debriefings, it hones teachers' core competencies in diverse aspects such as identifying students' mental distress, empathetic listening, emotional support and communication, which is expected to continuously enhance their ability to nurture students' mental well-being and overall development.

On the same day, the university also unveiled its Research Center for Psychology of Moral Education.

Li Ye, vice-president of Shanghai Normal University, said that normal universities bear the core mission of training educators. They need not only cutting-edge theoretical research to produce outcomes tailored to local educational contexts, but also efforts to break down barriers between research and basic educational practice, thereby transforming disciplinary strengths into tangible educational outcomes.

"We need to ramp up aligned efforts in theoretical research, technological innovation and social services to address the real-world needs of young people's mental health and moral development," Li said.