Who would study psychology if they didn't have some kind of problem?

Chapter 615 Bai Qinghua: A good disciple is truly a good disciple.
Bai Qinghua silently read the contents of the text message, pondering it repeatedly in his mind.

In front of him, around a narrow conference table, gathered psychological support experts from different systems and organizations.

When the rescue team first arrived, the school, which was to be used as a resettlement site, had not yet been cleared out. Therefore, the meeting room that served as the command center was just a tent, which has been in use ever since.

On the contrary, the psychological support team that arrived now was assigned a room as a dedicated meeting room because the school was already well-organized and had many small rooms that were not suitable for use as wards in terms of hygiene and ventilation.

However, the atmosphere in this conference room was not very pleasant at the moment.

The air was filled with the smells of sweat, water, and dampness, as well as an invisible, gunpowder-like smell of academic clashes.

Professor Ji sat in the head seat directly opposite the door, while his apprentice, whose hair was still covered in a thick layer of hairspray, made a final effort beside him.

Then Teacher Yijinjiao cleared his throat and said, "Dear teachers, we are about to begin our work. The first step is to establish an expert monitoring group, with each of you here as a core member, responsible for overall coordination and setting standards."

"In addition to those of us present, the monitoring team also needs to include camp leaders. I've already contacted them, and they'll be coming to observe our meeting in a bit."

"Therefore, I want to go through our workflow one last time and reach a consensus."

Teacher Yijinjiao spoke very quickly, with a tone that carried the fluency and confidence characteristic of academics when giving reports.

But his expression and eyes seemed somewhat disconnected from his tone, and he kept glancing in a certain direction in the conference room, appearing somewhat nervous: "The first step is to conduct large-scale psychological testing. We must use standardized composite scales, including the SCL-90, to screen all rescue workers, medical staff, and eligible disaster victims, establish psychological profiles, and accurately identify high-risk groups."

"The second step is to provide standardized training to grassroots staff and volunteers based on data, so that they can master the skills of initial identification and referral. Without this framework and data, subsequent interventions will be blind and inefficient."

"We've now assigned some staff to psychological counseling and intervention, so the rest of you have a heavier workload. Here are a few possible divisions of labor for the upcoming tasks; please take responsibility for them..."

These remarks are well-organized and logically sound.

However, in terms of content, it was not much different from what he said on the bus before.

This time, however, the experts and teachers from other research groups did not nod or praise as they had on the bus.

They all turned their attention, openly or secretly, to a certain place.

That place is also the reason why Teacher Yijinjiao's tone and expression are so contradictory now.

That was the first time Weng Pingting had heard Teacher Yijinjiao assign a task.

The meeting room was quiet for a while.

Even Teacher Yijin himself didn't realize that this silence was strange.

I saw Weng Pingting's phone face down to one side, her completely absorbed in writing and drawing on a piece of paper. She was genuinely and earnestly analyzing Professor Yijinjiao's suggestion from both academic and practical perspectives.

After a long while, she finally looked up and met Teacher Yijinjiao's serious gaze: "The framework needs to be built, but the focus is wrong."

Teacher Yijinjiao's already tense expression suddenly became even more serious, and he subconsciously moved closer to Professor Ji beside him.

After that first glance, Weng Pingting didn't look at Teacher Yijinjiao again. Her gaze swept directly to Professor Ji, and then she looked around the room.

As soon as she stood up, she seemed to take over the chairing of the small meeting quite naturally: "This... Teacher Jiao, right?"

Weng Pingting didn't seem to remember Teacher Yijinjiao's name very well, which made the other person blush for a moment.

“Your proposal is a standard operating procedure in peacetime and in a community setting,” Weng Pingting said calmly. “But first of all, this is a disaster area, and we are dealing with a group of people whose nervous systems are still in a ‘fight or flight’ state, and their cognitive resources are extremely scarce.”

"Make them sit down and fill out a complex questionnaire with dozens or even hundreds of questions? I've been working with volunteers in the disaster-stricken areas for a while now, and I dare say that distributing such questionnaires under these circumstances would not only result in an absurdly low response rate, but the validity rate of the collected questionnaires would also be less than 30%. It's a pure waste of manpower and resources, and an unnecessary burden."

She uttered a number that seemed to have no basis, but no one present refuted it.

Teacher Yijinjiao's face flushed even redder. He glanced subconsciously at Professor Ji beside him, but received no response. So, he braced himself and said, "Professor Weng, if there's no data..."

“Data is very important,” Weng Pingting interrupted before the other person could finish speaking. Her speech was slow and soft, but incredibly authoritative. “But first, we need to figure out what kind of data we need. Is it pretty statistical charts lying in a database, or is it effective data that can immediately guide us to find the most needed interventions to prevent crisis events from occurring?”

“The former can naturally be better incorporated into articles and books…” At this point, Weng Pingting glanced at Teacher Yijinjiao seemingly unintentionally, instantly freezing the hesitant teacher back in place.

Then Weng Pingting leaned forward slightly, placing her hand on the table. Although she was facing Teacher Yijinjiao, everyone present involuntarily leaned back slightly: "But I think what we need most right now is not who has a depression score a few points higher than the norm, but who has started to show dissociative symptoms, who has severe insomnia and startle reflexes, and who has developed strong self-destructive thoughts due to guilt!"

"The process is fine, but it's missing the most important step—"

Weng Pingting pointed behind her: "Aren't we currently sending out a group of psychological counselors to provide intervention? Why don't we wait for them to come back today, summarize the counseling situation, understand what problems the camp urgently needs to solve, and then adjust our work priorities for the future?"

"I don't know why, but it seems that you've overlooked these teachers who were sent out?" Weng Pingting finally turned her attention back.

When faced with the same question, Weng Pingting's rebuttal was more logical than Chonghui's on the bus.

Also—more aggressive.

At this moment, Teacher Yijinjiao no longer had the courage to look Weng Pingting in the eye.

His face turned from red to white, and he looked at his mentor for help.

Professor Ji's expression was also not good. He gently pushed up his glasses and finally spoke, his tone carrying the composure and authority of an elder: "Pingting—"

The way he chose to address people was also quite deliberate.

As soon as he spoke, Teacher Yijinjiao immediately sat down as if granted a pardon.

Professor Ji continued, “Your concerns are valid, but science emphasizes methodology and order. Without a unified framework and standardized assessment, how can we ensure the quality of intervention? How can we avoid chaos? How can we report our work results to our superiors? Psychological assistance is not a haphazard approach; it cannot rely on just a few counselors working alone.” His words implicitly referred to Nan Zhuren, who had gone straight to the front lines upon arrival and had not yet participated in the “structural” work.

At the same time, it also immediately excluded these psychological counselors from the academic school.

Many of the professors and teachers present were even nodding slightly in their hearts, but due to the current situation, they did not speak up and were still observing and evaluating.

Weng Pingting's lips twitched, then curved into a fixed smile, while she leaned forward even more: "Professor Ji, therapeutic effect is the only measure of success. When it comes to saving lives, do you have to draw up construction plans and apply for permits before digging up the buried person? What we are facing now may not be a single traumatized individual, but an entire group."

"Or is it that, compared to the on-site results, you now value the data that can be collected and used elsewhere more?"

Once the main target appeared, Weng Pingting's targets became much clearer.

The teachers from other teams began to discuss in hushed tones, and there seemed to be a subtle agreement between them and Weng Pingting.

Professor Ji's face immediately darkened. He turned to Bai Qinghua and asked, "Professor Bai, is this also your idea?"

……

Professor Ji knew at this point that he might not be a match for the young Weng Pingting in the debate, and he was getting a bit spurred on, so he quickly changed his tune in order to save face.

The two sects clashed, and Professor Ji admitted that his own disciples were temporarily at a disadvantage.

But now that you've stepped forward, Bai Qinghua, who is also a master, is still sitting in the same place, hiding behind your disciple. Isn't that a bit undignified?
Bai Qinghua looked up from his phone screen, blinked, and was about to speak when Weng Pingting waved her hand dismissively: "What I'm saying is, of course, my teacher's opinion."

Bai Qinghua blinked and then lowered her head again.

Professor Ji took a deep breath, somewhat exasperated: "Professor Weng, I understand that 'you' frontline workers value immediate response. But psychological assistance is a systematic project, not first aid! Without top-level design and unified standards, allowing each team to act independently will create countless problems. With inconsistent assessment tools, how can we compare situations in different areas? With intervention methods varying widely, how can we ensure quality? And who will be responsible if problems arise?"

"You said to wait for the therapists to come back, but what problems can they find in just half an afternoon? If we just wait for them, how much precious time will we miss?"

"Your fixation on individual cases is irresponsible towards the people in the disaster area! We must be responsible for the psychological reconstruction of the entire disaster area, not just satisfied with dealing with one or two individual cases!"

The logic behind this statement is also very sound.

The teachers from other teams started discussing in hushed tones, seemingly agreeing more with Professor Qi Ji.

Clearly, this macro-level design is more to their liking.

Upon hearing this, Bai Qinghua raised his phone as if he wanted to say something, but his phone vibrated again, so he lowered his head again.

Weng Pingting sneered, leaned back slightly, and crossed her arms: "Professor Ji, when you say 'responsible,' do you mean responsible for submitting a beautiful report, or responsible for minimizing the psychological suffering of the people here?"

She immediately became aggressive: "You're worried about the variety of intervention methods? Then tell me, when facing a disaster victim who has just lost a loved one and is crying so hard that he's almost in shock, is the CBT standard or a humanistic approach more effective?"

"When faced with a rescue team member who is hallucinating due to exhaustion, is it more responsible to use stabilization techniques first, or to give him an SCL-90 test first?"

"Or, when faced with different intervention subjects, do you want to apply a one-size-fits-all approach and use a uniform therapy? That would certainly look good in terms of layout, the conclusions would be very impressive, and it would be very 'responsible' for your article!"

……

Can you please stop focusing on typing the article?!
Professor Ji's face flushed red. Couldn't they keep these unspoken rules from being discussed openly?!

The professors from other teams, who had been nodding as Professor Ji spoke, froze for a moment, as if expressing their agreement would also land them in the camp of "disregarding real-world needs for the sake of article data."

Normally this would be fine, but you have to remember that camp leaders will be coming over soon, and if something like this is put on display in front of them, things will get really bad.

Some professors who had only heard of Weng Pingting before, but were meeting her in person for the first time today, began to look at her with a change in their gaze.

He seemed to understand why Weng Pingting had such a great reputation;

And why the other party was forced to leave Beidu for so long, only to return recently.

But Weng Pingting's offensive wasn't over yet: "Talking about standards and frameworks without considering the specific context is the greatest irresponsibility! You... um?"

She suddenly paused.

Behind them, Bai Qinghua tugged at Weng Pingting's sleeve, as if he wanted to say something.

[What's it to you? As the eldest disciple, I've almost knocked the master off the other side. Can't you just play on your phone?]

Thinking this to herself, but with so many outsiders around, Weng Pingting immediately took a deep breath and softened her tone: "Teacher, what's wrong?"

Chonghui and Shi Qianqian, who had been sitting and admiring their senior sister's heroic demeanor, both gave each other puzzled looks, indicating that their teacher seemed to be a little more enthusiastic today.
Bai Qinghua cleared his throat, and Weng Pingting paused for a moment before sitting back down in her chair.

Professor Ji's flushed face faded slightly, and the thought that "Bai Qinghua is actually quite well-behaved" had just formed in her mind—

"Everyone, there's no need to argue." Bai Qinghua handed his phone to Weng Pingting and said slowly, "Just now, my apprentice Nan Zhuren sent me a message. He has already done three psychological intervention cases and discovered a rather serious problem that we need to take seriously and start working on immediately."

All the teachers present, whether they were engaged in applied practice or basic research, were stunned for a moment.

Wait a minute, we haven't even finished arguing here yet, and they've already completed three intervention cases over there?
Wait a minute, half an afternoon... You've done three case studies in a row, and you've already summarized them?
Weng Pingting scrolled through the chat messages on Bai Qinghua's phone, her expression softening at first, a slight smile creeping onto her lips. But then, her expression immediately turned serious.

Bai Qinghua deliberately paused for a breath, allowing the teachers present time to process the news, before adopting a calm and steady voice: "Among the three visitors he intervened with, two were rescue workers experiencing physical discomfort due to non-physiological ailments. He also learned that similar cases are showing signs of spreading, in other words—"

"There is a potential risk of a mass hysteria outbreak within the camp. This needs to be taken seriously immediately!"

(End of this chapter)