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Following is a question by the Hon Albert Ho and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (April 16):
Question:
According to the 2013 Edition of the Census and Statistics Department's Women and Men in Hong Kong – Key Statistics, about 50 000 women suffered from mental illness/mood disorder, which outnumbered the 30 000 male sufferers. There are views that as women play more and more roles, they often have to face stresses arising from work and family at the same time. Besides, the press has reported from time to time in recent years on cases of persons with emotional problems killing themselves. Regarding the services for persons with mental illness/mood disorder (particularly for women), will the Government inform this Council whether:
(1) it knows the attendances by persons with mental illness/mood disorder (e.g. depression, anxiety) at the psychiatric specialist out-patient clinics under the Hospital Authority in the past three years, together with a breakdown by gender;
(2) it has adopted any measure to identify at an early stage persons with early symptoms of mental illness/mood disorder; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(3) government departments or non-governmental organisations provide non-pharmacological treatments for persons with early-stage mental illness/mood disorder; if they do, of the details (including the names of the departments or organisations); if not, the reasons for that; whether the Government subsidises such treatment services; if it does, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(4) it knows the number of women with mental illness/mood disorder receiving non-pharmacological treatments in the past three years, together with a breakdown by District Council (DC) district and type of treatments; and
(5) it has assessed if the various types of mental health and early intervention services provided for women in the various DC districts are adequate, and if such services are able to meet the needs of women in the respective districts?
Reply:
President,
At present, the Hospital Authority (HA) is handling about 210 000 cases of mental illness. In each of the past three years, there were over 700 000 attendances in psychiatric specialist out-patient clinics (SOPCs) for treatment of different types of mental problems. Among them, about 200 000 attendances involved patients suffering from mood disorder and 150 000 involved those suffering from anxiety disorder. The breakdown by year and gender is set out in Annex.
To enhance the support for patients with mild mental illness, the HA has launched the Integrated Mental Health Programme since 2010. Under the programme, patients with mild mental illness are provided with diagnosis, treatment and other support services, including individual or group counselling and psychological treatment, in primary care settings at designated general out-patient clinics in all seven clusters of the HA. The services are provided by multi-disciplinary teams led by family medicine specialists and general practitioners.
For patients with common mental disorders such as emotional distress, anxiety disorder and depression, HA has set up Common Mental Disorder Clinics at the psychiatric SOPCs in all of its seven clusters since 2010. These patients are provided with support services by multi-disciplinary teams, including assessment and consultation.
The HA will review the effectiveness of psychiatric services from time to time and work closely with the relevant departments to enhance the services with regard to the needs of the community.
The HA does not have the figures and information requested in part 4 and part 5 of the question.
Ends/Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Issued at HKT 15:08
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