Govt mulls mental health support via messaging apps

The Health Bureau said on Wednesday that officials plan to look into the feasibility of expanding a mental health support hotline to other platforms, such as instant messaging apps. The 18111 hotline which launched last December has been receiving around 350 calls per day. In a written reply to the legislature, Health Secretary Lo Chung-mau said those seeking help wanted to talk about issues such as mental distress, family relationships, physical health problems and work pressures. He said the hotline operators have referred around 200 people to different organisations for support, and two urgent cases to the police. Lo said officials have been regularly reviewing the effectiveness of the service and it could be expanded. "Taking into account the outcome of the review of the operation, we will consider the feasibility of extending the service to other platforms (such as instant messaging software) in consultation with the Advisory Committee on Mental Health in due course," he wrote. The minister added that officials plan to ask an independent organisation to conduct a full service evaluation study in the third quarter of the year, to collect views from NGOs and other stakeholders through questionnaires and focus groups.