Ending Hong Kong’s mental health stigma starts with its youth
October 10 was World Mental Health Day, which aimed to raise awareness of the significance of mental health in our daily lives.
Mental health of many Hongkongers on the brink
The stereotypes in society regarding the mentally ill can lead to suicidal behaviour, low help-seeking behaviour, low self-worth and self-harm. Stigmatisation and stereotypes of mental illness are fuelled by lack of knowledge, biased attitudes, and previous negative behaviour towards mental health and people with mental illness. Stigma reduction, hence, must begin with enhancing public knowledge, improving public attitude, and changing their intended behaviour.
We have sought to reduce mental health stigma among 120 university students each year through a common core course “The Journey into Madness”. We combine education about mental health and an experiential learning activity into the curriculum. The students take part in activities engaging members of the Hong Kong community who suffer the symptoms of mental illness, as well as educating the general public about mental illness in a proactive manner.
We found that after the students took part in the class and the experiential activities, they were more likely to understand the need for more community-based services and were less reluctant to have as a neighbour a person who was suffering from a mental illness.