Gov’t claims no increase in requests for help on students’ mental health

The director of the Centre of Psycho-pedagogical Support and Special Education from the Education and Youth Development Bureau (DSEDJ), Chow Pui Leng, said to the media yesterday that the number of requests for help regarding students’ mental health has not increased.
The statement came yesterday in a reply to a question from the media during a briefing on the sidelines of the Non-Higher Education Committee Plenary Meeting.
Questioned whether recent occurrences – and in particular the pandemic – prompted more requests for help, the official replied that the bureau did not register an increase in the number of requests for help in response to the matter.
Nevertheless, the mental and physical health of students was one of the main topics on the agenda during yesterday’s meeting.
According to DSEDJ information, in the meeting, the Chief of the Department of Non-Higher Education from DSEDJ, Wong Ka Ki, presented the work on eight specific areas in that field.
Since January this year, the DSEDJ together with Health Bureau, the Social Welfare Bureau, and other non-governmental entities have created a task force to follow-up on youth mental and physical health. According to the DSEDJ, the task force has developed 65 work plans, including several sharing sessions that are included on the Database for Moral and Civic Education.
Wong explained that the idea of including other associations and groups in this task force comes from the understanding that “youngsters have different needs,” leading DSEDJ to expand the work from the schooling system to the wider community.
Questioned on what currently constitute major concerns, Wong said, “Internet addiction is one of the matters that we have been addressing in the last few years and have to do with the changes in the society.”