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Following is a question by the Hon Fernando Cheung and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (July 11):
Question:
Regarding the mental health problems of children and youths (C&Ys) aged 19 or below, will the Government inform this Council whether it knows:
(a) the following in each of the past six years:
(i) the respective numbers of C&Ys aged five or below, six to 12 and 13 to 19, who sought consultation at the psychiatric specialist out-patient service of public hospitals, and the respective numbers of the C&Ys diagnosed as suffering from mental health problems;
(ii) the respective numbers of attendances of new cases seeking psychiatric specialist out-patient services for C&Ys in each hospital cluster, the average waiting time and attendances for first appointment and scheduled appointments (including urgent and non-urgent cases), and the percentage of C&Ys who did not turn up for follow-up consultations;
(iii)the respective numbers of admissions of C&Ys to mental hospitals, half-way houses, supported hostels and long-stay care homes;
(iv) the respective numbers of doctors and clinical psychologists working in psychiatric out-patient clinics of public hospitals and mental hospitals at the end of the year, and a comparison of the number of cases for treating C&Ys and adults suffering from various mental illnesses;
(v) the number of cases handled by school social workers involving mental health problems of C&Ys, with a breakdown of the cases by the types of disorder behaviour or illnesses (such as suicide, attempted suicide, depression, phobia, Internet addiction and other types of addictive behaviour, and psychosis); and
(b) the number of cases handled under the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Community Support Project, the number of psycho-educational activities held and the number of counselling sessions provided, in each of the past two years?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) (i) In each of the past six years, the number of outpatients seen by specialists on child and adolescent psychiatry of the Hospital Authority (HA), as broken down by age groups of five and below, six to 12, and 13 to 19 respectively, is given in Table 1.
The number of patients within the age groups of six to 12 and 13 to 19 has increased in recent years. This can be attributed to new programmes on child and adolescent mental health services (e.g. the Early Assessment Service for Young People with Psychosis) offered by the HA and Social Welfare Department (SWD). These programmes facilitate the early identification of mental illness suffered by children and adolescents, so as to allow early intervention by parents and social workers and referrals of those in need of medical attention to the HA for follow-up by specialists on child and adolescent psychiatry. The HA is therefore of the view that the increase in the number of young psychiatric patients can be attributed to an improvement to the rate of identification of mental health problems among children and adolescents.
(ii) The HA does not have a breakdown of the waiting time for first appointment at its psychiatric specialist outpatient clinics by the age of the patients. The overall number of patients with first consultations in each of the past six years as well as the median of their waiting time are set out in Table 2.
The medical staff of the HA arrange for date of follow-up consultations on the basis of the patients' clinical conditions. It does not involve any "waiting time".
The HA does not have a breakdown of the default rate (i.e. the proportion of cases where the patients failed to attend their appointed consultation) of psychiatric patients by their age. The overall default rate of psychiatric outpatients in each of the past six years is given in Table 3.
For the default cases, the psychiatric specialist outpatient clinics will, depending on the situation, proactively contact and follow-up on the patients, so as to ensure that they would follow the schedule and receive treatment.
(iii)The number of discharges of young psychiatric patients (i.e. those 19 years of age or below) from public hospitals in each of the past six years is set out in Table 4.
The HA is of the view that the increase in the number of young psychiatric inpatients in recent years can be attributed to newly added services on child and adolescent mental health.
Mental health patients in rehabilitation who would like benefit from subsidised residential services of SWD have to be 15 years of age or above. In each of the past six years, the respective number of mental health patients in rehabilitation, who were between 15 and 19 years of age and admitted to half-way houses, supported hostels and long-stay care homes, is given in Table 5.
(iv) The HA does not have a breakdown of the manpower of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists by specialist outpatient and inpatient services. The estimated manpower for HA's child and adolescent psychiatric services is given in Table 6.
As both the nature and treatment method of the mental illness of young persons are different from that of adults, it is not appropriate to make direct comparison between the number of such mental illness cases or the healthcare manpower responsible for them.
(v) In the past four academic years (i.e. 2002-03 to 2005-06), the number of primary students diagnosed to have mental problems (e.g. depression, schizophrenic psychosis and other mental disorders), as reported to the Education Bureau by the students' counsellors, is shown in Table 7.
Education Bureau does not have the figures for these cases for the 2000-01 and 2001-02 academic years.
As for secondary schools, according to information reported by non-governmental organisations to the existing statistical information system of SWD between 2002-03 and 2006-07, amongst the cases of secondary students handled by school social workers, the number of times such cases involving emotional or psychological health problems was between 21 000 and 26 000 per year. Emotional and psychological health problems encompass various types of emotional, mental, behavioural and interpersonal problems. However, a detailed breakdown is not available from the information collected from the non-governmental organisations. As certain students had emotional and psychological needs at the same time, there was some double-counting in the figures quoted above.
(b) In order to facilitate the early identification of mild to moderate mental health problems of children and adolescents aged between six and 18, so as to enable the provision of appropriate intervention services, SWD and HA's child and adolescent psychiatric team have in collaboration launched the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Community Support Project in late 2005. The Project commenced full operation in April 2006. As at March 31, 2007, the Project handled a total of 686 cases (including counselling and consultation cases) and organised 127 public education functions (e.g. seminars and workshops) on child and adolescent mental health, providing schools, youth centres and other community organisations with relevant consultation services and training. In addition, through collaboration with community organisations and establishment of community support networks, the Project provides child and adolescent mental health patients with appropriate and personalised rehabilitation services as well as training and activities relating to living and vocational skills, so as to help them overcome the adverse impact of mental illness and develop a positive living for their mental health.
Ends/Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Issued at HKT 15:00
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