Two historic Hong Kong sites set to be converted into creative mental health therapy centres

Two of the four latest historic buildings put up for repurposing in Hong Kong will provide creative psychological therapy services, officials announced on Thursday, reflecting what a top heritage conservation adviser described as an “increasingly serious” problem of mental stress in the city.

It is the first time government-owned heritage sites under the Revitalising Historic Buildings through Partnership Scheme will be repurposed to boost mental health, which has become a widespread social concern following spates of youth suicide in the city between 2015 and last year.

Now in its fifth round, the scheme will provide funding of HK$380 million (US$48.4 million) to non-profit organisations that were awarded the four projects, which are expected to be operating by 2023.

In the latest announcement, Roberts Block in the Old Victoria Barracks in Central, built in the early 1900s, will be turned into a creative arts psychological therapy centre. Watervale House at the former Gordon Hard Camp in Tuen Mun, built around 1933, will become a “soul oasis” for people to relieve stress through meditation.

Lau Chi-pang, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Built Heritage Conservation, which is in charge of allocating the buildings under the scheme, said the committee had no preference for any specific services.

“This round there are two applications providing psychological treatment by coincidence,” Lau noted. “Maybe this can reflect that there is indeed such a need in society.”