Help for 5,000 in Hong Kong traditional Chinese medicine mental health project

A university in Hong Kong will provide free traditional Chinese medicine treatments to 5,000 people who suffer from depression, anxiety or insomnia under a three-year project, with a goal of establishing related protocols for mental health issues.

Baptist University said on Monday that it had launched the city’s first large-scale community project that promoted the use of Chinese medicine in treating mental health issues in collaboration with the New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association.

Professor Bian Zhaoxiang, principal investigator of the Jockey Club Traditional Chinese Medicine-driven Mental Wellness Project, said data showed only 1.8 per cent of the city’s population consulted Chinese medicine practitioners for mental health issues.

“As mental health problems have become more prevalent in Hong Kong and Chinese medicine has great effectiveness and safety in this field, we would like to, through this project, establish a trial platform for a Chinese medicine-based approach to improve mental health,” Bian said.

“We hope to develop a clinical protocol for Chinese medicine to improve mental health, which can be used by different organisations.”

Bian, who is also associate vice-president of clinical Chinese medicine at the university, added they also expected to develop an evidence-based method to assess the outcomes of the treatments and collaborate with mental health professionals through the programme.