Hong Kong schools need more diagnostic help under suicide prevention system, experts say
Calls to streamline procedures under three-tier system follow city leader’s push for improvements
A government mechanism designed to help Hong Kong children at risk of suicide should offer more diagnostic support and streamline its procedures, experts have said, a day after the city’s leader called for improvements.
Observers weighed in on Wednesday after Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu expressed worries over an imbalance in the number of students being referred to public hospital psychiatrists under the highest level of the emergency three-tier system introduced in December last year.
Authorities earlier said more than 280 cases had been reported in the third, or highest, tier as of the end of the summer holiday, compared with 120 cases in the second.
Professor Paul Yip Siu-fai said cumbersome procedures and reluctance from parents could be behind the lower number of students being treated in the second tier, under which patients visit off-campus social work services. Others have pointed to long waiting times for psychiatric services as the cause behind the issue.
“Even when their children are referred to the second tier of the mechanism, parents think the effectiveness is not that great, so a lot of the time they are not willing to proceed with the services provided at the second tier,” said Yip, who is head of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention at the University of Hong Kong.
Under the first tier, schools prioritise helping students at higher risk of suicide by seeking professional counselling or treatment services for them.
