Long wait for psychiatrist can have tragic consequences

Last month, there was another tragic report of a suicide in the Chinese-language press, a post-secondary student in Hong Kong.

The student wanted to see a psychiatrist in a public psychiatric outpatient clinic and the earliest appointment was in a year. The psychiatric nurse used the triage system (assigning degrees of urgency to patients).

Sadly, this is not an isolated case. Almost a year ago, there was a report about a woman suffering from a deteriorating mental condition. She had threatened to throw her baby out of a building shortly after being visited by her case manager, an occupational therapist. Although risk management for mentally disturbed individuals by the relevant professionals is difficult, the Association of Doctors in Clinical Psychology is alarmed by such stories.

Hong Kong is a rich city but very poor indeed when it comes to the mental health resources provided to the public. The shortage of psychiatrists in the public health sector, on which most citizens rely, is one of the major reasons needy people fail to get timely psychiatric services and the necessary intervention.

Suicidal risk assessment poses a great challenge to mental health professionals. They cannot say with absolute certainty that patients will definitely not harm themselves or other people after they leave the consultation room. Nonetheless, these patients should be attended to in a timely fashion. This allows professionals to more effectively assess if a person may hurt him or herself and perhaps another person.

We understand there is no quick way to solve the shortage of psychiatric professionals. However, the government should allocate more resources for mental health services. When deciding how the money should be spent, officials could look to good examples set by countries like the US regarding suicidal assessment. Patients are assessed in hospitals by a team of mental health professionals. Clinical psychologists, occupational therapists and psychiatric nurses are properly trained to handle patients with emotionally disturbed and psychiatric conditions. Having patients jointly assessed by them at the triage level would be a feasible solution.