Following is a question by the Hon Kenneth Leung and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, in the Legislative Council today (October 22):

Question:

     There are views that in recent years, pressures from academic studies, families and interpersonal relationships, etc, coupled with the ever-changing social environment, have led to increasingly common mental health issues among young people. It has been reported that a study has even pointed out that among those aged 15 to 24 of the population, as many as 16.6 per cent of the respondents have mental health issues, yet most of them have not sought assistance. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) of the respective numbers of new and follow-up cases involving children and young people at psychiatric specialist outpatient services in public hospitals in each of the past three years, as well as their respective percentages in the total number of cases, broken down by age group of the young people involved (i.e. under 6, 6 to under 12, 12 to under 18, 19 to under 24, and 25 to 29); the average waiting time for such new cases;

(2) of the total number of requests for assistance received each year since the launch of the "18111 - Mental Health Support Hotline" and, among the cases referred and supported through the hotline, the number of those involving young people aged 30 or below;

(3) of the current total number of primary care physicians, paramedical staff and relevant personnel with mental health qualifications and relevant training over the territory who can provide identification, intervention and preliminary psychological treatment for young people at the community level; the mental health support measures currently provided by the authorities at the community level for young people in school and at work, as well as their respective effectiveness;

(4) as there are views pointing out that despite the increase in mental health prevention, assessment and intervention services for young people in schools and communities in recent years, such services are often delivered through different programmes and platforms, making it not easy for young people to learn about these programmes and seek assistance, whether the authorities will consider providing young people with a one-stop service platform integrated with district support, thereby making it easier for young people to seek consultation and assistance as well as receive support; and

(5) of the measures put in place by the authorities targeted at the youth community to reduce the problem of young people with mental health issues not seeking assistance due to the stigma against patients with mental illnesses?

Reply:

President,

     The Government attaches great importance to the mental health of the public. Through co-ordination and collaboration among the Education Bureau (EDB), the Health Bureau (HHB), the Department of Health (DH), the Hospital Authority (HA), the Labour and Welfare Bureau (LWB), the Social Welfare Department (SWD), non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and other community stakeholders, the Government adopts an integrated approach to promote mental health. This approach provides multidisciplinary and cross-sectoral services to people with mental health needs (including children and adolescents), encompassing mental health promotion, prevention, early identification, intervention, treatment, rehabilitation services, and community support.

     In consultation with the DH, EDB, HA, LWB and SWD, the consolidated reply in response to the question raised by the Hon Kenneth Leung is as follows:

(1) The HA psychiatric specialist outpatient clinics (SOPCs) implemented an established new case triage system to ensure that patients with urgent conditions requiring early diagnosis and treatment receive priority follow-up and treatment. New referrals are typically screened by nurses first and reviewed by the relevant specialists before cases are being classified as Priority 1 (urgent), Priority 2 (semi-urgent), and Routine (stable) cases. Generally speaking, psychiatric SOPCs will classify patients with urgent medical needs as Priority 1 (urgent) cases for follow-up to ensure they will receive treatment within reasonable time. Patients may return to their respective psychiatric specialist outpatient services to receive assessment again if their mental conditions have changed during the waiting time, so that an assessment could be made as to whether there is a need to advance their consultation, or they may consider seeking treatment from the accident and emergency services.

     The HA will continue to strengthen the services of its psychiatric SOPCs, improve waiting times for urgent and semi-urgent new cases, including by increasing the number of consultation slots. The services of psychiatric nurse clinics will also be enhanced to ensure that patients receive follow-up care while waiting for specialist outpatient appointments or during follow-up appointments.

     The tables below set out the number of first, follow-up and total attendances of the psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) services in the HA in 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25:

2022/23

Age group	Psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) first attendances	Percentage to the total no. of psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) first attendances	Psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) follow-up attendances	Percentage to the total no. of psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) follow-up attendances	Psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) total attendances	Percentage to the total no. of psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) total attendances
age 0-5	2 714	6%	3 788	<1%	6 502	1%
age 6-11	5 637	13%	48 614	5%	54 251	6%
age 12-18	3 814	9%	67 609	7%	71 423	7%
age 19-24	1 775	4%	38 695	4%	40 470	4%
age 25-29	1 552	4%	35 199	4%	36 751	4%
age 30 or above	26 395	63%	731 407	79%	757 802	78%
Total	41 887	100%	925 312	100%	967 199	100%

2023/24

Age group	Psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) first attendances	Percentage to the total no. of psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) first attendances	Psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) follow-up attendances	Percentage to the total no. of psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) follow-up attendances	Psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) total attendances	Percentage to the total no. of psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) total attendances
age 0-5	3 332	7%	3 740	<1%	7 072	1%
age 6-11	5 579	12%	47 791	5%	53 370	5%
age 12-18	4 136	9%	73 477	8%	77 613	8%
age 19-24	2 007	4%	40 683	4%	42 690	4%
age 25-29	1 606	4%	35 090	4%	36 696	4%
age 30 or above	28 032	63%	733 485	79%	761 517	78%
Total	44 692	100%	934 267	100%	978 959	100%

2024/25

Age group	Psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) first attendances	Percentage to the total no. of psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) first attendances	Psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) follow-up attendances	Percentage to the total no. of psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) follow-up attendances	Psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) total attendances	Percentage to the total no. of psychiatric specialist outpatient (clinical) total attendances
age 0-5	3 075	7%	4 266	<1%	7 341	1%
age 6-11	6 052	13%	49 022	5%	55 074	5%
age 12-18	5 215	11%	82 264	8%	87 479	9%
age 19-24	2 153	5%	45 659	5%	47 812	5%
age 25-29	1 648	4%	36 306	4%	37 954	4%
age 30 or above	28 671	61%	759 956	78%	788 627	77%
Total	46 814	100%	977 473	100%	1 024 287	100%

Notes:
(1) Age groups are delineated according to the age attained as of June 30 of the respective year.
(2) Individual figures may not add up to the total due to rounding and the inclusion of unknown age groups.

     The HA has implemented a triage system on specialist outpatient (SOP) services to determine the priority of patients attending SOPCs based on their clinical condition. Statistics on waiting time for new cases at SOPCs by age group are not available.

     In 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25, the number of new cases triaged as Priority 1 (urgent), Priority 2 (semi-urgent) and Routine (stable) cases and their respective median (50th percentile) waiting time in the HA for child and adolescent psychiatric SOP service and adult psychiatric SOP service are tabulated below:

2022/23

	Priority 1		Priority 2		Routine
	Number of new cases	Median waiting time (weeks)	Number of new cases	Median waiting time (weeks)	Number of new cases	Median waiting time (weeks)
Child and adolescent psychiatric SOP service	206	1	959	3	13 089	73
Adult psychiatric SOP service	1 846	1	6 419	3	19 105	18

2023/24

	Priority 1		Priority 2		Routine
	Number of new cases	Median waiting time (weeks)	Number of new cases	Median waiting time (weeks)	Number of new cases	Median waiting time (weeks)
Child and adolescent psychiatric SOP service	190	1	1 107	2	13 078	77
Adult psychiatric SOP service	1 869	1	6 121	3	18 877	19

2024/25

	Priority 1		Priority 2		Routine
	Number of new cases	Median waiting time (weeks)	Number of new cases	Median waiting time (weeks)	Number of new cases	Median waiting time (weeks)
Child and adolescent psychiatric SOP service	173	<1	1 082	2	13 607	77
Adult psychiatric SOP service	1 529	1	5 948	3	19 426	21

Note: With effect from October 1, 2022, the waiting time for new case bookings at integrated clinics has been incorporated in that at psychiatric SOPCs.

     In view of the COVID-19 epidemic outbreak in Hong Kong in early 2020, the HA adjusted its services to cope with the outbreak. This should be taken into consideration when comparing the service capacity of the HA in the respective years. With the cessation of anti-epidemic measures in early 2023, the HA has been gradually resuming the provision of all of its services.

(2) The HHB launched the "18111 - Mental Health Support Hotline" (MHSH) to provide one-stop, round-the-clock support for people with mental health needs, rendering emotional and mental health support to persons from all backgrounds and of all ages. Callers will be provided with service information or referred to appropriate service organisations based on their individual needs.

     Since its launch on December 27, 2023, up to September 30, 2025, MHSH has handled a total of around 208 000 calls (an average of around 330 calls per day) and provided immediate support. Of these, 510 cases were referred to the Integrated Community Centre for Mental Wellness (ICCMW) of the SWD, Designated Hotline for Carer Support of the SWD, the Mental Health Direct hotline of the HA and other NGOs. Among these referrals, 23 cases were more urgent and required immediate referral to the Police for follow-up. Among callers willing to disclose their age, those aged 11 or below, 12 to 17 years, 18 to 24 years and 25 to 34 years constituted approximately <1 per cent, 4 per cent, 9 per cent and 18 per cent respectively, while these groups constituted about 0 per cent, 2 per cent, 6 per cent and 22 per cent of the referral cases, respectively.

(3) to (5) The Government adopts an integrated and multidisciplinary approach when providing mental health services. The multidisciplinary teams, including doctors, nurses, clinical psychologists, medical social workers, and occupational therapists, provide mental health-related support to young people at the community level. Due to the participation of numerous individuals who typically provide support across multiple services, it is thus not feasible to have separate breakdowns of the human resources allocated solely to deliver mental health support to young people at the community level.

     The Government has introduced a number of measures at the community level to address the mental health needs of young people in education and employment, effectively helping each group managing their specific mental health needs.

     From August 2024, the Government launched the Healthy Mind Pilot Project at three District Health Centre (DHC)/ Expresses, to offer free initial mental health assessments to members aged 18 or above. Members initially assessed to have mild symptoms of depression or anxiety will be referred to service providers in the same district for follow-up by trained Wellbeing Practitioners, providing further emotional assessment and evidence-based low-intensity psychological therapy. As outlined in the Chief Executive's 2025 Policy Address, the Government will extend the project to cover six more DHCs in 2026 to provide more comprehensive follow-up services.

     In addition, the SWD has since 2010 established 24 ICCMWs in the territory to provide one-stop, district-based community mental health support services ranging from prevention to risk management for persons in mental recovery, persons with mental health needs (target group has been extended to cover secondary school students aged below 15), their families, carers, and local residents. To meet the needs of at-risk and hidden youths, the Government has since 2018 provided subventions to NGOs to set up five Cyber Youth Support Teams to proactively search and reach out to at-risk and hidden youths through online platforms, providing timely intervention, counselling, support, guidance and follow-up services through both online and offline modes. The SWD also provides 24-hour online counselling services for youth experiencing emotional distress and immediate crises through the real-time youth emotional health support platform "OpenUp", allowing them to receive support anytime, anywhere. Furthermore, the EDB's one-stop student mental health information website, "Mental Health @ School", not only provides diverse information on improving student mental health, but also includes relevant community resources and helplines to help schools, students, and parents gain a deeper understanding of mental health information, services, and help-seeking channels.

     In terms of mental health publicity and public education, the Government has launched the "Shall We Talk" mental health promotion and public education program. The programme aims to step up public engagement in promoting mental well-being, enhance public awareness of mental health with a view to encouraging help-seeking and early intervention, and reduce stigma towards people with mental health needs. Through the one-stop website, social media pages and offline events, "Shall We Talk" delivers messages on mental health. In order to reach out to more young people, the programme held tours at primary and secondary schools across different districts, as well as tertiary institutions, and broadcast videos on social media platforms to encourage the public to recognise mental health issues, to promote mental health messages.

     As mentioned above, the Government has launched a number of mental health initiatives and implemented a three-tier response mechanism, i.e. prevention, identification, intervention and treatment, to support youth mental health. This requires concerted efforts from the Government, society and families to reduce stigmatisation and encourage young people to actively seek help when facing mental health issues.

Ends/Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Issued at HKT 19:42

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