Resource Pack of Youth Mental Health Issues

Peer (Classmates, Friends)

Source 1:
Mr. Keswick Wing-hun, service director of Evangelical Lutheran Church Social Service
states that when adolescents are emotionally down and have suicidal thoughts, these rarely
become realistic actions. However, once these are agreed by friends, thoughts will more
likely become actions (evidence to show the importance of peer’s recognition !
conformity (i.e. try to gain recognition from peers by following the trend even you might
know the action is wrong or inappropriate ! source mention peer pressure might
encourage self-harm action).

Source 2:
Results from a study on Cyber-bullying (evidence to show the potential risk of negative
comments received from peer ! leading to lower self-acceptance). among Hong Kong
Secondary Students conducted by Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups in 2010 found
that those who are bullied have an extremely low self perception. Interviewees voiced that
they have had suicidal thoughts to avoid being bullied.

Source 3: Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u41QO2-Kf1w (2:06 – 2:22)

Parents
Source 1:
“Family is a buffer [against stress] for children and teenagers, but now both parents have to
work, so they spend much less quality time interacting with their children,” Dr Lee Shing,
a professor of psychiatry at Chinese University says. It is an issue with children receiving
less emotional support from their parents (neglecting parental style).
But Angie Shum Kwan-yu, a clinical psychologist from the HKU centre, warns against the
other extreme. She says overprotective parents (indulging parental style; helicopter
parents). greatly reduce children’s ability to handle adversity. “Whenever problems arise,
these parents will help solve them or lodge complaints to school. These children will then
not be able to endure difficulties and therefore lack skills of resilience and behave
impulsively,” Shum says.
Source 2: Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E68adsZsMpY (8:39 – 10:27)

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School / Teachers
Source 1: Paul Yip, chairman of Committee on Prevention of Student Suicides states:
“We would like to train students to be gatekeepers as well. The Quality Education Fund
will provide funding of HK$150,000 for each school to come up with ways to help the
well-being of schoolchildren.”
Source: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2018007/one-too-many-hong-kong-suicide-expert-battling

Source 2:
For 13 years, Stewards Pooi Tun Secondary School in Hong Kong have implemented life
education classes. One of the classes included a field trip to the cemetery to teach students
the think about the idea of death and how to make the full use of it.
Source: http://life.mingpao.com/cfm/basicref3b.cfm?File=20160310/braa01a/gca2.txt

Source 3:
Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E68adsZsMpY (6:09-7:44)

Government
Source 1:
The Education Bureau set up a Committee on Prevention of Student Suicides in response
to the suicide spate among our school children in the period of March and April, 2016. The
common goal is of preventing the occurrence of further tragedies. (function: probe into the
problem led to student suicide ! focus on problem identification; but lack of concrete
actions / measures now)
Source: http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/student-parents/crisis-management/about-crisis-management/CPSS_final_report_en.pdf

Source 2:
In 2011, the Equal Opportunities Commission found in a survey that people with mental
illness were consistently among the most stigmatized and avoided groups(EOC could
provide legal advise to rehabilitated mental health clients if they encounter any unfair
situation in their daily life e.g. work place / job application / promotion etc.) in different
areas of public life, including housing, public services and education. There is still not
enough health-care manpower, including psychiatric doctors and nurses and health
professionals (inadequate manpower in medical sector)., to adequately serve the mental
health needs of Hong Kong.
Source: http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1873159/stigma-stumbling-block-hong-kongs-efforts-promote-mental

Source 3:
Unfortunately, only limited mental health promotion programmes have been
recommended, developed or implemented. Recent research shows that a high percentage of
people lack knowledge of mental health and are unaware of effective strategies for mental
health promotion.
Source: http://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/1814549/we-should-stop-neglecting-mental-health-issues-hong-kong

Source 4:
Mr. Fung Yat Lam, chairman of the Hong Kong Subsidized Secondary Schools Council,
suggests that low teacher to student ratios are hindering student’s emotional needs to be
met. Currently, in junior secondary schools, there are only 1.7 teachers per class of 30 – 40
students and for senior secondary, 2 teachers per class (inadequate manpower in
educational sector).

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Social worker
Source 1:
As of September 1 last year, 34 non-governmental organisations were providing social
work services to 465 secondary schools, according to the Social Welfare Department.
“Now some students do not dare to meet social workers. They are worried that the social
workers will not be useful to help them or how others view them.” Angie Shum Kwan-yu,
a clinical psychologist from the HKU centre says. Currently, there is at least one social
worker in most secondary schools (current educational policy ensure high accessibility of
professional & objective advice at school)to support students with academic, social or
emotional problems. But it remains questionable how much support can be provided, when
secondary schools have a student base of about 1,000 pupils. (difficulty in providing
continuous service due to tendering problem + difficulty in providing quality service due to
large service targets base)
Source:http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1923465/students-breaking-point-hong-kong-announces

Source 2:
The Hospital Authority is working to send nurses to schools to talk to social workers and
teachers to improve treatment for those mentally ill. Nurses specialized in psychiatry are
better equipped to identify those with suicidal tendencies. However, Chan Chi-chung, a
member of the Civil Alliance for Student Suicide Prevention questions that. "It takes
months for teachers and social workers to convince students with possible psychiatric
problems to seek medical treatment, can a nurse as an outsider actually help?”
Source: http://www.thestandard.com.hk/section-news.php?id=171774

Source 3:
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E68adsZsMpY (7:37 – 9:19)

2020.11.7 F4 LS PH Mental Health Issues.doc

Students
Source 1:
Experts are warning that spending a lot of time in the virtual world are shaping a
generation with weaker resilience against stress and problems. “This generation grew up
with the internet (technological factor / individual factor: students choose to spend a
prolonged time on the internet; lack stress coping skills). Although they are more
connected, they also tend to look only at things they like. They might not understand
complicated or different views on an issue. For anyone who sees things not fitting their
taste, they could simply ‘unfriend’ them,” says Dr Lee Sing, a professor of psychiatry at
Chinese University. This has led to a decline in interpersonal skills and resilience, as well
as in the ability to handle stress, he says.

Source: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1923465/students-breaking-point-hong-kong-announces

Source2:
The Committee on Prevention of Student Suicides in Hong Kong found that pressure from
schoolwork was often an indirect cause of suicides, but more often it was that students did
not have a good relationship with their family, and were being forced to study instead of
building on their own interests.
The Hong Kong Federation of Youth suggests that students should think more about their
personality, strengths, weaknesses and aspirations in life (individual factor: lack self-
reflection & self-actualization opportunities) Alternative courses should be offered by
schools to build leadership and interpersonal skills.

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Source: https://www.hongkongfp.com/2016/07/26/understanding-of-mental-health-issues-lacking-says-head-of-student-suicide-
committee/

2020.12.16 F4 LS PH Mental Health Issues.doc

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 4. According to the sources provided for each stakeholder and your own knowledge, evaluate
stakeholder’s actions to alleviate youth mental health issues in Hong Kong.

Individuals (students / fresh graduates) – who fails to cope with the academic stress
Government – fails to continuously reflect on the local education system / policies

Effectiveness of Stakeholders’ Action to

Stakeholder Alleviate Youth Mental Health Issues
Achievement Areas for Improvement

-Their comments are more -Their comments might not be

influential to their friends than gov. always constructive / positive due to
Peer during puberty immaturity
(classmates, -misuse of social media that
friends) promote cyberbullying problem
-Lack of resources to help their peer

-Parents more influential than gov. Undesirable parental style (e.g.

since they lay an important neglecting style ! failed to give
foundation to shape children’s enough emotional support to teens;
Parents personality & stress coping ability in indulgent style ! reduce
early developmental stage youngster’s stress coping ability)

fault of parents? lack of

professional support? Unfavorable
family / labour policies?

School could well-utilize social Teachers (front-liners) may not

resources provided by gov. to select / have enough time to counsel
School design appropriate curriculum that students due to heavy workload /
Teachers address their own students’ administrative work / lack of
emotional problems (e.g. life professional skills
education ! help students to search
their own mission / meaning of life
OR stress management workshop !
academic stress OR proper usage of
IT to tackle cyber bullying problem)

Able to identify & tackle the root
problem of youth mental health
problem with various measures (e.g.
Government Setting up Committee on Prevention
of Student Suicides, providing
funding to School, increase social
resources to employ more human
resources in medical & educational
sectors)
Still inadequate support in both
medical & educational sector; failed
to promote social awareness
towards importance of mental
wellness; failed to change the local
exam-oriented learning culture /
change large local class size

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 High accessibility to professional Low efficiency since the one social
advice offered by social worker to worker need to serve 1000 students
Social students (since there is at least 1 at school
Workers social worker in school under
current policy)

Students enjoy free will & choice to
think & live positively / avoid
Students unhealthy lifestyle (e.g. self-isolation
/ over indulgence in computer games
etc.)
Students should do more self-
reflection & look for self-
actualization opportunities (join
different variety of ECA to explore
the unknown self & improve their
stress coping & communication
skills)