The COVID-19 pandemic had an adverse impact on the mental health of frontline workers including firefighters. To better understand this occurrence, this cross-sectional study evaluated the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress among 105 operational team and elite team firefighters in Kota Bharu, Kelantan State, Malaysia before and after the pandemic. The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21), a validated self-reporting survey tool, was used to assess symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress among the survey respondents. Findings revealed that firefighters had an increased level of anxiety and depression during the post-pandemic period compared to the pre-pandemic period. However, there was a decrease in the stress levels (20%) reported by study participants. Respondents belonging to the operational team had a higher reported level of depression, anxiety, and stress than those from the elite team. This may be attributed the operational team being more exposed to the risk of COVID-19 infection on account of their routine and more voluminous workload. The findings of this study suggest that firefighters, in general, are at an increased risk of mental health problems as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Knowing this, it is important to consider these findings when addressing the prevention and management of mental health among firefighters. This includes providing additional support and devoting more resources to those who are most at risk for experiencing symptoms of mental health such as firefighters performing functions aligned with that of an operational team.

The application of positive psychology in the work of mental health education in colleges and universities can help students better face setbacks, enable students to face learning and life with a positive attitude, and promote students' future development and promote students' healthy growth. Based on positive psychology, this paper analyzes and discusses its practice and exploration in college students' mental health education.

Emotional education plays an important role in the field of education and is of great significance to students' mental health and all-round development. As a discipline focusing on emotional expression and creativity cultivation, art education provides a unique opportunity to penetrate emotional education. By analyzing the penetration of emotion education in junior middle school art teaching, this paper discusses the role and implementation strategies of emotional education in art teaching, aiming to provide valuable reference for educators.

Objective: To explore the influencing factors of mental health and the mediating role of self-compassion between family cohesion and mental health. Method: Family Cohesion Scale, Symptom Checklist, and Self-compassion Scale were used to investigate 593 college students in Zhejiang Province. Result: Family Cohesion was negatively correlated with mental health and positively correlated with Self-compass- ion among college students; Self-compassion was negatively correlated with mental health. Self-compassion fully mediates the relationship between the two. Conclusion: The path of family cohesion is indirect, and strengthening Self-compassion education can improve the mental health level of college students.

Stress has evolutionary roots that help human beings evolve and survive. Existing workplace mental health models typically view stress as the direct cause of poor mental health. Such models focus on strategies to eliminate it. Guided by O’Connor and Kirtley’s integrated motivational-volitional (IMV) model, we posit that demanding jobs and high-stress environments do not directly impact an individual’s mental health but trigger a “sense of self” moderator (SSM), which then leads to mental health outcomes. This moderator is modified by the workplace’s organizational design and individual’s traits. We propose a Workplace Mental Health (WMH) Model, which suggests that by addressing these SSM modifiers through evidence-based interventions at organizational and individual levels, even in high-stress environments, organizations can have mentally healthy workforces and build high-performance workplaces. This paper assumes that stress is an inalienable part of any work environment and that a secular reduction in stress levels in modern society is infeasible. Although some individuals in high-stress job environments develop mental illness, many do not, and some even thrive. This differential response suggests that stress may act as a trigger, but an individual’s reaction to it is influenced more by other factors than the stress itself.