The recent wave of student suicides has attracted much public attention. The government introduced the "Three-Tier School-based Emergency Mechanism" at the end of last year to identify and support students at high risk of suicide. Before and after this, the education, social service, and medical sectors have implemented various measures and services regarding support of students with mental stress. This issue of the Policy Bulletin is based on interviews with secondary school principals, youth social workers from different units, and organizations promoting mental health. Here is a brief overview: A secondary school principal believes the emergency mechanism is useful and encourages schools to make necessary arrangements to accommodate students in need, as well as to promote a more inclusive campus culture; Youth service units of social service organizations have designed various programs to allow adolescents seeking help for mental distress free of stigma. These units have also effectively utilized their facilities as places for adolescents to find relief; and A social enterprise promotes mental health and reduce stigma with stories and events, both online and offline. Furthermore, this issue also introduces Singapore's mental health strategy, with its key features of multiple-tier intervention, community support, and cross-sector collaboration.  As the government ...

The new issue of Policy Bulletin is now available (Chinese version only). As always, our Policy Bulletin attempts to adopt new perspectives to look at policy issues in order to enrich policy discussions. Facing the trend of aging population in Hong Kong, elderly care has become conspicuous. Along with the discussions on " Continuum of Care" and "Aging in Place," with the growing interaction between Hong Kong and the Mainland China, elderly care in the Greater Bay Area has also entered the policy discussion and become one of the potential options in the overall elderly care policy. In this issue of the policy bulletin, through the review of the issue of elderly care in the Greater Bay Area from different perspectives, we aim to raise public awareness of the importance of elderly care in Great Bay Area to Hong Kong elders, its current service development and bottleneck, and similar experience of the promotion of cross-border elderly care in Macau. This will help different stakeholders to propose policy suggestions in order to create more alternative of the elderly service for Hong Kong elders. You may now download a full copy of the Policy Bulletin Issue 36 – “A Comprehensive Look at ...

The government has recently proposed a new framework for poverty alleviation, targeting specific groups and implementing measures to measure the effectiveness of poverty alleviation from multiple perspectives. Many social services are aimed at impoverished individuals, and the social service sector is also responsible for operating various poverty alleviation projects. However, the response from the social service sector to the new poverty alleviation framework seems to be limited. This issue of the policy bulletin introduces various concepts and tools for defining poverty, as well as how different countries formulate poverty alleviation goals and policies. It also uses the example of a community space to showcase existing community resources, and invited a former member of the Commission on Poverty to provide ten major poverty alleviation recommendations in light of the current situation of poverty in Hong Kong. Please click here to download Issue 35 Policy Bulletin. For enquiries or to get a hard copy, please contact Ms Rainbow Lok, Officer, Policy Research and Advocacy at [email protected] or 2876 2473 ...

The new issue of Policy Bulletin is now available (Chinese version only). As always, our Policy Bulletin attempts to adopt new perspectives to look at policy issues in order to enrich policy discussions. Although the government has put in place various administrative guidelines and reporting mechanisms to protect children, cases of child abuse still occur in recent years. The 2021 Policy Address proposed to strengthen legislation by establishing a “mandatory reporting mechanism for child abuse cases.” The Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Bill” has recently undergone its first and second readings in the legislative Council. This issue attempts to estimate the potential number of child abuse cases that could be reported; examine the child protection mechanisms in Hong Kong; and discuss the impact of legislation. Hence, we explored how to enhance the three-tiered child protection system through resource allocation and cross-disciplinary cooperation. You may now download a full copy of the Policy Bulletin Issue 34 here. For enquiries, please contact Ms. Connie CHEN, Officer of Policy Research and Advocacy at [email protected] or 2864 2963. To get a hard copy, please contact Ms. Kitty Leung, Programme Executive of Policy Research and Advocacy at [email protected] or 2864 2977 ...

In recent years, Hong Kong has experienced unfortunate incidents resulting from long-term care, which have highlighted the inadequacy of the late-stage care system. With the rapidly increasing elderly population and numerous critically ill patients, achieving good end-of-life care is not an easy task. To ensure that the goal of "good life, good death" is achieved, it is essential to utilize community resources and energy to provide volunteer services and support for those in need. When promoting government policies, we must take into account the importance of providing better care and support for the elderly and critically ill patients. In this month's Policy Bulletin, we have listed several articles that address the policy and service issues that Hong Kong residents should consider to achieve a "good death." These issues include default medical instructions, legislation related to patients passing away at home, community care support, medical and professional manpower training, flexible and rapid intervention support services, and life education. You may now download a full copy of the Policy Bulletin Issue 33 here. For enquiries, please contact Ms. Becky Fung, Officer of Policy Research and Advocacy at [email protected] or 2876 2435. To get a hard copy, please contact Ms. Kitty Leung, Programme Executive of Policy ...