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Following is a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, to a question by the Hon Lau Kong-wah on assistance rendered to disciplined services officers having emotional problems in the Legislative Council today (May 2):
Question:
Regarding the emotional health of disciplined services officers (DSOs), will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers of DSOs in various disciplined services seeking assistance in the past three years because of emotional problems;
(b) among the aforesaid cases, of the respective numbers of those requiring further follow-up actions and those in which the DSOs concerned were diagnosed with emotional or mental illness, and the number of DSOs who left the service due to emotional problems; and
(c) of the assistance rendered by the authorities to DSOs who are troubled by emotional problems, as well as the ways to help relieve DSOs of the stress at work and in other areas?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) According to departments' information, the number of disciplined services officers seeking assistance in the past three years because of emotional problems, broken down by disciplined services is as follows:
Disciplined services Total number in
the past three years
-------------------- --------------------
Hong Kong Police Force(HKPF) 607 (Note 1)
Immigration Department(ImmD) 47
Fire Services Department(FSD) 11 (Note 2)
Correctional Services Department(CSD) 186
Customs and Excise Department(C&ED) 24 (Note 3)
Government Flying Service(GFS) 1
(b) Among the above cases, the number of those requiring further follow-up actions, those in which the officers concerned were diagnosed with emotional or mental illness, and those who left the service due to emotional problems is set out below:
Disciplined (i) (ii) (iii)
services Number of Number of Number of
officers officers in officers in
requiring column (i) column (i)
further diagnosed with left the
follow-up emotional or service due
actions mental illness to emotional
problems
----------- --------- -------------- ------------
HKPF 607 (Note 4) 49 2
ImmD 47 (Note 4) 43 0
FSD 0 0 0
CSD 96 4 0
C&ED 2 2 1
GFS 1 1 0
(c) Assistance rendered by departments to disciplined services officers who are troubled by emotional problems takes the following forms:
(i) provide counselling service to staff through in-house professionals (e.g. clinical psychologists) or dedicated unit, hiring of outside counselling service or hotline counselling services administered by the Civil Service Bureau and Non-governmental Organisations;
(ii) monitor staff performance and emotions by the supervisors;
(iii) make referrals of emotionally-troubled staff for follow-up treatment; and
(iv) make suitable posting arrangement to help with their rehabilitation.
Prevention is better than cure. Measures taken by the disciplined services to help relieve officers of the stress at work and in other areas include:
(i) organise seminars, talks and training in induction courses and refresher courses to equip staff members with skills to handle work pressure and emotional problems;
(ii) organise recreational activities to alleviate work pressure;
(iii) promote a caring culture;
(iv) encourage the practice of healthy lifestyle through departmental publications with a view to enhancing their physical, psychological and financial well-being and building up officers' resilience in face of adversity; and
(v) review the work pressure on staff from time to time and offer prompt assistance to those in need.
Note 1: The figure refers to the number of Police officers seeking general psychological counselling services in the past three years.
Note 2: The figure reflects FSD officers who sought assistance from the stress counselling team only. The counselling team provides assistance to members who may have suffered from trauma or stress after attending traumatic incidents.
Note 3: The figure reflects the number of C&ED officers who sought assistance from the outside counselling agency hired by C&ED to provide counselling service to its staff.
Note 4: Certain form of follow-up action is taken for officers seeking assistance. These actions include follow-up telephone calls, assessment on psychological adjustment, professional counselling and external referrals as necessary.
Ends/Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Issued at HKT 15:00
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