Hong Kong’s First Child and Adolescent Mental Health Study Kicks Off

The Department of Psychiatry and the Department of Psychology at CUHK have launched Hong Kong’s first child and adolescent mental health study, ‘WORK HEART’. The inter-disciplinary team is now recruiting local students aged from six to 17 to participate in the study. Random sampling will be adopted to choose 8,000 students from over 100 primary and secondary schools. The selected students and/or their parents will participate in a detailed interview covering mental health diagnoses and other biopsychosocial factors. A sub-group of 1,000 students will be invited to participate in an intensive study where further health indicators will be measured. The study will help identify the risk and protective factors influencing child and adolescent development so that a support system can be developed. The study initiated by the Advisory Committee on Mental Health will complete in two-and-a-half years.

This article was originally published in No. 538, Newsletter in May 2019.