Media

Jockey Club Online Youth Emotional Support “Open Up” is the first 24/7 operated online-crisis support service targeting youth between 11 to 35 years old. Help-seekers can chat with counsellors via popular social media platforms including WeChat and the official web portal regarding their study, family, work and relationship induced emotional distress. The project is funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and is supported by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention (CSRP) of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and three leading youth non-profit organisations, namely, Caritas-Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, and The Boys’ & Girls’ Clubs Association of Hong Kong.

A kickoff ceremony was held today (October 7, Sunday) at the Jockey Club Tower on HKU campus, and was officiated by the Chief Secretary for Administration Hon Mr. Matthew Cheung Kin-Chung, GBM, GBS, JP. Mr. Cheung said in his speech that the government attaches great importance to the mental health of adolescents. He believed the "Open Up" platform has made good use of young people's favorite mode of communication for them to seek emotional support at any time. He also encouraged adolescents to actively seek help when they are in need of support.

Chairman of the Programme Coordination Committee Professor Paul Yip, also the Director of HKU CSRP, will be leading the three-year programme and research. To better understand the use of social media by young people and their help seeking behavior in relation to their mental health status, the project team conducted a baseline mobile and online survey engaging 1,527 and 1,732 youths respectively. According to the findings, young people prefer text messaging over phone call or face-to-face conversation in communication. And above all, online respondents tended to have more emotional problems compared to phone call respondents, among them 46% had considered to commit suicide, 37% had been bullied, 22% had bullied others, 27% exhibited self-harm behaviour,  8% had attempted suicide, 10% were diagnosed with major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, social phobia or avoidant personality disorder and 12% exhibited social withdrawal symptoms. Survey results also revealed youth tend to be insensitive in recognising their own problems. They also demonstrate a passive coping style and low perceived efficacy of external help. On the other hand, their perception of this pioneer online service tend to be more positive saying it provides a high degree of privacy, requires little verbal expression and lower effort with no venue or time restriction, thus can actively reach out to more at-risk youth.

The first round of online volunteers were recruited in July and August 2018. As an affirmation, those who successfully completed trainings and practices were awarded a diploma at the launch ceremony. A volunteer shared her experience and gains from the programme as well as how effective teamwork has facilitated the whole process providing systemic support to all volunteers, giving them the confidence to be a member of the “Open Up” volunteer team. A user of online service also shared his experience of how he was supported by counselling online and why he selected this option over others.

Photos and presentation slides for the press conference can be downloaded from the following website today after 4pm at: http://csrp.hku.hk/openup2018/.

For media enquiries, please call 2507 2881, or send email to pr@openup.hk (Ms. Vicki Lee).