With 27 suicides of people under 19 so far this year, Hong Kong politicians and local experts vow to offer grants and create numerous measures in bid to promote greater mental health awareness.
Twenty-seven Hong Kong youths aged 19 or below have taken their own lives in 2023 and 269 others have attempted suicide, according to a report released this month by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Center for Suicide Research and Prevention at the University of Hong Kong.
The majority of cases were revealed to be attempts from high places, with five occurring on school premises. The deaths mark a four year high in the city.
During a local police event on suicide prevention, it also emerged that of the students who had taken or attempted to take their lives, over 55 percent had reported mental health problems, but fewer than 40 percent had received any attention from city welfare professionals. Cases have been found to peak in the months of October and May, due to academic pressures, with the youngest attempted suicide case being just nine years old.
Furthermore, Coroner’s Court records have revealed that the rate for people in the 15–24 age group who had taken their own lives in 2022 rose to a record high of 12.2 deaths per 100,000 people, nearly double the rate of 6.2 in 2014.
School factors, family issues and mental health problems have been cited as the most common causes behind the increase. “It is believed that the upward trend may be affected by the [COVID-19] pandemic and the greater challenges facing students after the resumption to normalcy,” said Christine Choi Yuk-Lin, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Education, in response to queries, adding that the city’s Education Bureau does not collect data on attempted suicide cases of students from schools or keep such statistics.
Alarmed by the findings, the city’s Health Bureau told Hong Kong lawmakers that they plan to implement a “three-tier emergency mechanism” to help students. This would involve allowing teachers and social workers to identify students with mental health challenges in public schools, provide counselling services, offer additional professional help, and make psychiatric services available for those truly in need.
In addition, the Hong Kong Education Department is scheduled to hold a series of talks about parental education and students’ mental health throughout November and December. They’ve also requested that schools review their students’ current workload and test arrangements.
Ahead of the Jockey Club’s report, Hong Kong education authorities also announced that they would give local primary and secondary schools a grant of 80,000 Hong-Kong dollars (US$10,245) each to promote mental health amongst students. The total amount 58,776 million).of the grants is expected to be over 80 million dollars (US$10.3 million).
Separately, the Samaritan Befrienders Hong Kong, an organization which specializes in suicide prevention, also expressed concern at the “obvious increase” in the number of Hong Kong students taking their own lives, claiming they’ve received 51 calls from youths seeking help between July and the end of October.
