Mental Health Project – China (Hong Kong) (AMSAHK)

Name of the activity: Mental Health Project

Country/NMO: China (Hong Kong) (AMSAHK)

Program: Mental Health

Type of the activity: Education

General description:

The Mental Health Project aims to raise awareness for mental health issues, while at the same time improving the mental health status of medical students. There are three sub-events, including ‘Dr Dog Day’ to help students with stress relief, ‘Crisis Negotiation Workshop’ to equip students with active listening and communication skills, and an online campaign to raise awareness for mental wellness within the medical field. The overarching message of the whole activity is that medical professionals need to take care of their own mental well-being before helping other people in society.

Focus area:

Mental Health among medical students

Problem statement:

The growing prevalence of mental health illnesses in Hong Kong is further challenged by the stigma against them that exists within society. Medical students are also burdened by a lot of stress, compromising their mental health. We want to not only educate medical students about these issues through our activities, but also try to improve their mental well-being.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

Our primary target group is medical students. Beneficiaries include future patients, the general public of Hong Kong and others, as by improving and advocating for medical students’ mental health, our future doctors will be more capable at improving the mental well-being of those around them.

Objectives and indicators of success:

– Relieve students’ stress during the period of examinations. Evaluate number of students who participated in Dr Dog Day and conduct informal qualitative surveys.

– Equip medical students with skills of crisis negotiation. Pre-/Post event surveys conducted to assess their knowledge attainment and attitude change.

– Educate the wider public about mental wellness. Quantitative assessment of engagement rate for the online campaign.

Methodology:

Our activity has three components:

1. A stress-relieving activity in which therapy dogs will be brought onto the campuses of both medical schools in Hong Kong around exam period. Educational leaflets and “goodie bags” will be distributed to further enhance our cause.

2. A Crisis Negotiation Workshop will be organised in collaboration with the Hong Kong Police Negotiation Cadre to equip students with the crisis negotiation/active listening skills, for when they serve vulnerable groups with mental illnesses.

3. An online campaign will be arranged to raise awareness for mental health issues, especially within the medical profession. Different videos will be posted, including street interviews to the public, encouraging videos to medical students and formal interviews with three experts within the field of mental health.

Plans for evaluation:

For the Crisis Negotiation Workshop, there will be a pre- and post-survey sent to participants with questions regarding: i) Skills and Knowledge, ii) Awareness, iii) Motivation. Questions of both surveys will be mostly identical, to see if the activities have caused any change in those three areas. For the ‘Dr Dog Day’ and our online campaign, evaluation can only be conducted by sampling. We will evaluate the engagement rate by social media statistics, informal chatting with participants about their opinions after engaging in our activities, etc.