New Situation and Reflections on Male Health Promotion and Education in Shanghai – Part Two of Xie Lingli's Report

II. Analysis of New Circumstances and Situations in Men's Health Promotion and Education

As Shanghai accelerates its internationalization, people's lifestyles and values ​​are becoming increasingly diversified, directly impacting men's health education. Therefore, it is necessary to objectively analyze the new situation and potential challenges, summarize and apply the principles of men's health education, and ensure that this work continues to develop while maintaining its current strengths.

1. The contradiction between service and demand will exist for a certain period and within a certain scope. In recent years, activities promoting men's health have stimulated a rapid increase in men's demand for health services, requiring us to provide more targeted services. Currently, there is a contradiction between the increasing demand for men's health promotion services and the insufficient provision of services by society.

2. A clear polarization trend exists in the demand for men's health education services. In its process of internationalization, Shanghai is caught in the crossfire of vastly different needs and perspectives from people in developed and less developed regions of the world, experiencing the mutual influence of diverse cultures. On the one hand, it is constantly exposed to the cultural and lifestyle philosophies of developed regions, and its service recipients residing in international communities demand top-notch educational services. On the other hand, the migrant population from less developed areas, whose understanding of sexuality, knowledge, and their needs for men's health and quality of life are still at an "enlightenment" level and in a "primitive" state, present a significant challenge to government departments in organizing and conducting men's health education activities.

3. Personalized services still have significant limitations. Rapid economic and social development has accelerated the transformation of individuals from employers to members of society. Currently, centralized training and education programs on men's health organized by employers are gradually fading out; public understanding of Men's Health Day remains largely focused on physiological and medical aspects, with less attention paid to attitudes, psychology, and men's social and family roles, resulting in a lagging development of personalized services.

4. Traditional management and service models are facing challenges. As citizens' legal awareness and rights protection awareness increase, property management is gradually becoming more legalized. The channels and methods for functional departments to obtain information on reproductive health, family planning, and other related matters are relatively lagging behind. The face-to-face publicity and service model with service recipients is being challenged. In Shanghai's newly built residential areas, the phenomenon of "three doors"-the main gate of the residential area, the building entrance, and the apartment door-is becoming increasingly difficult to access.

III. Some Thoughts on Promoting Men's Health Promotion and Services

The continuous deepening of men's health promotion services will lead men's demand for health promotion services to a higher level, and will comprehensively impact the existing framework of men's health promotion services. In planning future men's health promotion service activities, we should focus on introducing market-oriented operations, striving to build new promotion service models, further enhancing the level of promotion and education, expanding into new service areas, and cultivating men's health education into a brand.

1. Government functional departments should strengthen overall coordination of men's health promotion and service activities from a macro perspective. The Municipal Population and Family Planning Commission should gradually shift its focus from specific promotional activities to formulating plans, improving policies and measures, and standardizing work procedures. According to the division of responsibilities, men's health promotion and services should be implemented by the relevant functional departments in accordance with the law. In 2005, our commission included the "Questionnaire Survey on the Current Status and Needs of Men's Health Education" as an important project and released the relevant results to the public to raise awareness and guide social forces and funds to carry out more promotion and services related to men's health.

2. Introduce market-oriented operations and innovate the working mechanism for men's health promotion and education. We need to increase publicity efforts, expand the market influence of men's health promotion and education activities, and attract the participation of social organizations. Our television program, "The Source of Life," was originally government-run, but now it is operated by the television station itself with social funding, achieving market-oriented operation. Based on this, through a combination of management and economic means, and by adopting the form of government procurement of services, we will guide, regulate, and cultivate the men's health promotion and education market. We will explore an operational model under market economy conditions in which the government, research departments, enterprises, intermediary organizations, and other social forces jointly carry out men's health promotion and education activities, developing socialized and market-oriented men's health promotion services.

3. Promoting men's health education and services proactively to enhance minors' sense of responsibility and health awareness. Strengthening health education and services for students in puberty is an important aspect of men's health education and services. While education on puberty hygiene and HIV/AIDS prevention is widespread in the city, guidance on the sound personality, sexual psychology, and sexual morality of this generation of only children needs further deepening. We must creatively explore operational models for peer education and "youth-friendly" services, gradually forming a complementary men's health education and services framework involving society, schools, and families.

4. Enhance the effectiveness of humanistic care and promote "informed choice" in men's health. Sustainable development centers on people, and a people-centered approach has become a societal consensus. Forced propaganda and education often fail to achieve the desired results. When conducting men's health education activities, the content should include psychological adjustment, adapting to societal development needs, and expanding knowledge of health care and contraception. In terms of format, modern media such as the internet, digital television, and mobile television should be utilized to provide appointment services for those with specific needs, such as through email, forming a service model integrating "delivery, selection, and collection" to meet the diverse needs of men.

5. Utilize modern network technology to build a fast channel for information transmission. To facilitate the monitoring of male reproductive health dynamics, our commission incorporated information on married men into the information collection platform for the reproductive-age population in 2004. The next step is to focus on guiding districts and counties to explore ways to improve the informatization level of male health education and promotion, fully leveraging the functions of information transmission, exchange, and utilization, and striving to build a male health education and service platform that is innovative in content, fast in transmission, has a large amount of information, and comprehensive in functions.