Beijing Opens Free Psychological Counseling Hotlines for Overseas Chinese on Coronavirus-Related Stress

Customers wearing masks visit a shopping mall in Haikou, south China's Hainan Province, March 14, 2020. [Xinhua/Pu Xiaoxu]

BEIJING, March 25 (Xinhua) — Beijing has opened four free psychological counseling hotlines for overseas Chinese to help relieve emotional stress caused by the pandemic of novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

The United Front Work Department of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China has worked with four universities in Beijing to launch the hotline services, inviting more than 600 psychological counseling experts to participate. The hotlines have a total of 60 phone counseling seats.

The department said the counseling experts are familiar with the epidemic prevention work in China, and many of them have the experience of studying and working abroad. They are able to provide psychological counseling and policy counseling for overseas Chinese in response to their questions on coronavirus prevention and control.

Among the hotlines, Tsinghua University's psychological counseling hotline is (86) 400-680-6101, and experts can provide around-the-clock service.

The overseas psychological counseling hotline of Beijing Normal University is (86) 010-86409146, and the service hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Beijing time.

Peking University's Overseas Psychological Counseling Hotline (86) 010-53466977 serves from 1:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Beijing time.

Capital Normal University operates a psychological counseling hotline for overseas children. The hotline (86) 400-900-5335 is available from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Beijing time. 

(Source: Xinhua)