Three Hong Kong district centres will offer free initial mental health assessments starting on Thursday as part of the government’s efforts to improve services after a frenzied stabbing attack last year.
Authorities launched the Healthy Mind Pilot Project at the health centre in Tuen Mun, as well as express ones in Eastern district and Yau Tsim Mong, a district comprising Yau Ma Tei, Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok.
“The preliminary assessments will help identify the members’ risks of emotional distress in relation to depression and anxiety,” the government said.
“Members preliminarily assessed to have mild symptoms of depression or anxiety will be referred to non-governmental organisations for further assessment and follow-up, so that they can receive appropriate support at an early stage.”
The pilot scheme is among 10 measures proposed by the government last June to support people in mental recovery and with emotional needs.
Other measures include setting up a mental health support hotline and improving training of social workers in community mental health services units.
The initiatives were introduced after two women were stabbed at a shopping centre in Diamond Hill in the same month, with the suspect reported to be a schizophrenia patient who received treatment at a public outpatient clinic.
Under the pilot project, preliminary assessments and subsequent counselling and therapy services are all free of charge.
Trained staff at the three centres will conduct preliminary evaluations involving questionnaires for members aged 18 or above when they are assessed on their physical health risks.
The centres will refer those with mental health needs to the partnering NGOs, New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association or Mind HK, for professional follow-up and another round of emotional assessment.
Well-being practitioners from the two welfare groups will offer low-intensity psychological therapy, such as guided self-help treatment and psychoeducational groups, to cases with mild to moderate symptoms of anxiety or depression.
High-risk cases will either be referred to the Integrated Community Centres for Mental Wellness or undergo multidisciplinary support services.
Social worker Crystal Yuen Shuk-yan, from NGO the Society for Community Organisation, said she supported the launch of the programme in district health centres.
“It is necessary to identify mild cases on a local level and so we don’t have to just rely on specialists,” Yuen said.
She said Castle Peak Hospital and Kowloon Hospital, major psychiatric facilities, were located in Tuen Mun and Yau Tsim Mong districts, signalling greater mental health needs in the areas.
Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital also operates a psychiatric facility in Eastern district.
She said the government could consider expanding the mental health screening services to areas of Sham Shui Po, Kwun Tong and Tin Shui Wai, where residents usually required more support in community social services.
She said those areas also tended to have more lower-income families, who were more likely to suffer mental health stress because of their living conditions.
Dicky Chow Ka-chun, head of healthcare and social innovation at think tank Our Hong Kong Foundation, said he believed the free assessment and referral services at the three centres would ensure residents’ access to timely and appropriate support.
He added that the measures could also alleviate the bottleneck in specialist services, such as those offered by psychiatrists and clinical psychologists.
Chow suggested the government establish an interdisciplinary data communication system for the pilot project to share information among the district centres, NGOs and the Integrated Community Centres for Mental Wellness.
“[Residents] would no longer need to repeatedly explain their mental health issues, reducing their stress,” he said. “The system would also facilitate the referral process for service providers and improve data collection efforts.”
