Hong Kong’s mental health policy must focus on meaningful lives without stigma
Samson Tse and Chung Ka-Fai urge that Hong Kong’s new Advisory Committee on Mental Health and policymakers focus on strengths-based and family-based recovery, as well as community support, so that recovered patients have access to meaningful work and social lives
The report said, “The review also reaffirms the importance of strengthening community support … enhancing the capacity of health-care professionals at the primary care level, developing public-private partnership, [and] providing more multidisciplinary support in the community as the long-term strategy in the development of mental health policy.”
Recovery is the common vision of approach to be adopted by the Hospital Authority, Social Welfare Department and NGOs in providing services to patients with severe mental illness. The mission of this approach is “to facilitate recovery … by providing [such patients] and their families with personalised, holistic, timely and coordinated services that meet their medical, psychological and social needs.”
Study reveals need for psychiatric services in Hong Kong
In the US, mental health services remain inadequately funded, even though it has been almost 10 years since legislation mandated that these be funded on a par with physical health services. Only one out of three people with mental health conditions will receive treatment. On the positive side, shared decision-making between professionals and clients, and collaborative, person-centred care is taking off, along with growth in a peer support workforce.