Hong Kong’s public hospitals setting up ‘relaxation stations’ for workers stressed by protests
- Rise in number of hospital staff seeking counselling as demonstrations take their toll
- Some have problems at home too, clashing with teenage children over politics
Hong Kong’s ongoing anti-government protests are affecting health care workers to such an extent that public hospitals are setting up special areas for staff to de-stress and ease their minds.
More health care staff have been seeking help for mental distress. While most were worried about the situation in the city, some said they were finding it hard to communicate with their teenage children because they disagreed over politics.
Dr Rosalie Lo Suk-yee, director of Oasis, a centre under the Hospital Authority that focuses on mental health and counselling for health care staff, said the pressure experienced by staff had grown more intense.
There were 1,651 staff attendances for one-to-one sessions at the centre from June to September, with the monthly number from July to September about 15 per cent higher than in June, when the protests first began.