Prison guards in a north China province are getting psychological training to alleviate their stress.

The training program, the first to treat prison guards in the country, is aimed at helping them build self-confidence, enhance their interpersonal communication skills and deal with setbacks.

Nearly 200 of the 720 prison guards suffer psychological problems such as depression, anxiety and hostility, said Du Yuhai, an official with Jidong Prison based in Tangshan, Hebei Province, citing test results.

"The psychological stress of the first batch of 137 trainees has been alleviated to a big degree. Their self-confidence has improved, and their response and observation abilities have been enhanced a lot," Du said.

The prison guards' stress comes partly from strict rules they work under.

A guard can be punished if a fight or jailbreak occurs when he is on duty, said a 42-year-old prison guard at Jidong Prison, where each guard is responsible for some 20 convicts.

Zhang Huike, a 26-year-old guard in the prison, said he had once been quite depressed and even thought of resigning from his job, when dealing with troublesome convicts.

"I used to quarrel with some convicts and did not know how to deal with them when they did not obey my instructions and even jeered at me," Zhang said.

"The training course taught me how to communicate with tough convicts in a more confident and effective way," said Zhang.

In the light of the experience of an advanced training program from the United States, the prison established a psychological training base last August at a cost of more than 1 million yuan (128,000 U.S. dollars).

Twenty-seven prison guards had been trained and now serve as teachers of the psychological training program.

The prison will carry out the training every three years.

Source: Xinhua