Hong Kong should enforce guidelines on pupil exercise time at school, mental health advisory head says

He said the current curriculum framework allowed for one hour of exercise for pupils per day, but time allocation varied according to school priorities.

Practising sports can improve psychological health and teach students how to overcome challenges, making them more resilient, according to Lam.

The well-being of students has been in the spotlight amid rising levels of suicide among young people and surveys painting a worrying picture of the city’s mental health landscape for school pupils.

Based on his recent talks with schools, Lam said the youth mental health crisis seemed to be stabilising.

“After months, students have slowly adapted to in-person learning after the pandemic, while principals have been working hard to construct a happier campus,” he said.

Lam, who took over as committee chairman in November, said the government was considering extending and bolstering its temporary three-tier system to tackle suicide risks among students. The initiative is a collaboration between the Health Bureau, Education Bureau and Social Welfare Department.

The mechanism, rolled out in December and set to end this month, aims to help teachers and social workers to quickly identify secondary school pupils with strong suicidal tendencies and provide counselling services.

Under the system, the government gives extra professional help from outside the education system, such as psychologists and medical professionals.

1.6% of Hong Kong secondary pupils attempted suicide last year: survey

The Education Bureau can refer youngsters with serious mental health problems to the Hospital Authority with a priority for psychiatric services.

Within the first month, the Hospital Authority received 30 referral cases from principals, while the Education Bureau received 35 cases of schools requiring additional support from the Social Welfare Department’s off-campus support network.

Lam said authorities were looking to expand the system to include further prevention and referral mechanisms.

“The general public has the ‘18111’ hotline for help and principals need to have a hotline for help too. We will also review whether such a hotline should be made a regular feature,” he said.

Authorities in December launched the 24-hour ‘18111’ helpline for residents grappling with mental health issues.

The Education Bureau in December said the city recorded 31 suspected suicides among students in the first 11 months in 2023, higher than the annual figures of 14 in 2018, 23 in 2019, 21 in 2020, and 25 each in 2021 and 2022.

Lam said his committee’s analysis of recent student suicide cases found that most were not suffering from mental disorders, did not come from troubled family backgrounds or have bad grades.

Hong Kong’s post-Covid public health wins and battles in 2023

“It was because at the moment they needed help, they thought that no one understood or would listen to them. These are all preventable,” he said.

An official survey also found 1.6 per cent Hong Kong secondary school pupils tried taking their own lives in the last academic year.

“We need to create an environment where more teachers and students are aware of mental health and know how to respond to different situations. We need more training in this area, maybe in the past we have been negligent about this,” Lam said.