The few who do find employment are forced to work for a meagre wage
Psychiatric outpatients hoping to return to work have problems finding a job, and if they do, the pay is usually very low.
Tim Pang Hung-cheong, of the Society for Community Organisation, said welfare groups had a battle securing reasonable pay from prospective employers.
'These organisations can only find jobs for them by bidding for contracted-out work, which is usually awarded on the principle of the lowest bidder wins,' he said.
As an example of the poor pay, outpatients working as cleaners at bus stations were paid as little as HK$12 per hour.
'The government should introduce more economic incentives to encourage companies to employ more psychiatric patients. It should award contracted-out work to a company that agrees to recruit a certain percentage of patients for its workforce, even if its tender is not the lowest,' said Mr Pang. 'This would help a great deal.'
