Editorial Commentary: Pathological social withdrawal during in adolescence: a culture-specific or a global phenomenon?

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Culturally Relevant Protective and Risk Factors of Youth Risk Behaviors Among Pakistani and Indian Students in Hong Kong: A Focus Group Study

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Building a model for encouraging help-seeking for depression: a qualitative study in a Chinese society

BACKGROUND:Clinical depression has been increasingly prevalent in international health statistics but people are often found to be reluctant to seek help when they encounter depression. However, there is no general theory to explain how personal, social and cultural factors affect an individual's help-seeking intention, nor to guide the design of preventive programmes for such intention once needed.METHODS:Drawing on the theory of planned behavior, we deployed the illness narrative approach and interviewed 18 participants in Hong Kong.RESULTS:With the diverse results we gathered from the interviews, a behavioral model was built to conceptualize the interplays of various factors in shaping one's help-seeking intention and behavior for depression. Participants appeared to have a limited view of treatment options and had diverse views of the symptoms of depression, both of which profoundly affected their motivation to seek help.CONCLUSIONS:The role of family and friends and a holistic approach to mental health education were found to be particularly important for encouraging help-seeking behavior in future campaigns concerning depression.published_or_final_versio

Completed suicide and suicidal behaviour among people with heavy gambling behaviours

Session - OP17-1L: Mental Illness, Gambling and Other Risk FactorsCongress Theme: New Discoveries and Technologies in Suicide PreventionInternationally, the average rates of past year problem gambling range between 0.5% and 7.6% with an average of 2.3%; the lowest rates are observed in Europe and the highest rates in Asia such as Macao, Singapore and Hong Kong [1-3]. The most tragic outcomes of heavy gambling are completed suicide. There are limited studies about suicide and gambling. Two Coroner’s Court record-based descriptive studies on suicides with gambling behaviour from Australia [4] and Canada [5] suggested that gambling was a crucial risk factor for suicide. Two studies from the United States examined suicide rates in counties with ...postprin

Attitudes towards suicide following an undergraduate suicide prevention module: experience of medical students in Hong Kong

OBJECTIVES: To explore qualitative and quantitative changes in attitudes and experiences of medical students following a special study suicide prevention module. DESIGN: Pilot study. SETTING: The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. PARTICIPANTS: A 2-week intensive special studies module was delivered to third- and fourth-year medical students in June 2011. The module was elective and involved several modes of teaching. All students filled the Chinese Attitude toward Suicide Questionnaire before and after the course. They also provided written feedback about the module experience. Three students participated in in-depth interviews. RESULTS: In all, 22 students aged 20 to 23 years enrolled in the special studies module; 15 (68%) of whom were male and only one was married. Positive trends were noted in attitudes towards suicide following the participation in the special studies module, namely, reduced negative appraisal of suicide, reduced stigmatisation of the phenomena, and increased sensitivity to suicide-related facts. Feedback of the students suggested inclusion of this module into the main medical curriculum, increased confidence in dealing with issues related to suicide, and appreciation of skills focusing on interviewing in patients. Overall the module was well received by medical students. CONCLUSIONS: A suicide prevention training module seems to have been valued by students and lead to positive attitudes towards understanding suicide. Adopting this initiative as a suicide prevention strategy warrants further exploration.published_or_final_versio

A multidisciplinary programme to care people with suicide and attempted suicide in the Eastern District

Congress Theme: New Discoveries and Technologies in Suicide PreventionSession - OP20-7N: Understanding and Helping Suicide Attempters 2BACKGROUND: Suicide is a highly taboo and stigmatized issue in Chinese societies. This greatly affects people’s help-seeking behaviour when encountering such problems. The community -based suicide prevention progamme aims at targeting all individuals with or without risky suicidal behavior to help promote its prevention to minimize its stigmatisation and to enhance help-seeking behavior. Collaboration platform among various disciplines had been ..

Preliminary findings of the Jockey Club Autism Support Network (JC A-Connect) Project - Family Support Team

Conference Theme: Support Learning and Developmentpublished_or_final_versio

Understanding aborted suicide attempts: a mixed-methods approach

Session - OP20-7N: Understanding and Helping Suicide Attempters 2Congress Theme: New Discoveries and Technologies in Suicide PreventionThe term "aborted suicide attempter" refers to an individual who 1) intents to kill oneself, 2) changes of mind immediately before the actual attempt, and 3) is absence of injury. Studying aborted suicide attempts has an advantage of knowing the actual thoughts and actions that stopped these individuals implementing their plans by themselves. More, Hong Kong is an ideal place to study aborted suicide attempt because the most common suicide method is jumping from a height and this method is relatively "visible" and easier to be intervened by a third party, like ...postprin

An ecological analysis of secondary school students' drug use in Hong Kong: A case-control study

Background: Youth drug use is a significant at-risk youth behaviour and remains as one of the top priorities for mental health services, researchers and policy planners. The ecological characteristics of secondary school students’ behaviour in Hong Kong are understudied. Aim: To examine individual, familial, social and environmental correlates of drug use among secondary students in Hong Kong. Method: Data were extracted from a school survey with 3078 students. Among the 3078 students, 86 students reported to have used drugs in the past 6 months. A total of 86 age- and gender-matched controls with no drug-use behaviour in the past 6 months were randomly selected from the remaining students. Multiple logistic analysis was used to examine differential correlates between those who used and did not use substance in the past 6 months. Result: Positive school experience and perspective to school and parental support are protective factors of drug use. Lower self-esteem, lower self-efficacy against using drugs and higher level of permissive attitude towards drugs were associated with drug use. Students who were low in self-esteem and rather impulsive tend to use drugs. Conclusion: To prevent students from drug use, efforts in individual, family, school and community-levels should be addressed.postprin

Prevalence and correlates of video and internet gaming addiction among Hong Kong adolescents: a pilot study

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