The Committee on Prevention of Student Suicides held its sixth meeting this afternoon (October 4) to have a comprehensive discussion on the recommendations on measures to prevent student suicides submitted earlier by the working groups.
 
     The Committee set up five working groups in April this year to enable focused discussions on student suicide preventive measures in the areas of mental health, schools, families, youth/post-secondary institutions and media. The meeting today mainly discussed the recommendations consolidated from the data and views gathered in those areas.
 
     The Chairperson of the Committee, Professor Paul Yip, said, "The Committee has analysed the primary and secondary school student suicide cases in the past three school years and noticed that suicides involved multiple concerns, with over 95 per cent of the cases having more than one cause, including mental illnesses, adjustment difficulties, issues in interpersonal relationships and emotional problems.
 
     "The Committee urges various sectors including different government bureaux, non-governmental organisations, schools, families and social media to work together to prevent student suicide tragedies and to instil a sense of hope and positive energy in young students. The Committee also hopes that together with the active involvement of all stakeholders, the Government can effectively promote young people's healthy development through its policies, measures and co-ordination of resources."
 
    The Committee will put together the data analysis and views collected and recommend measures to prevent student suicide. The full report will be submitted to the Secretary for Education at the end of October.

Ends/Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Issued at HKT 17:20

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