Primary and secondary school students walk outside Tseung Kwan O Government Secondary School, Dec 1, 2020. (CALVIN NG / CHINA DAILY)

HONG KONG - Attaching great importance to the mental health of the youth, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government launched on Friday a school-based emergency mechanism to stop the recent rise in student suicides.

The HKSAR government said in a statement that it will implement Three-Tier School-based Emergency Mechanism from Friday to January 2024 in all secondary schools in Hong Kong, working together with schools, parents and other stakeholders to ensure early identification of students at high risk.

"The epidemic in the past few years had caused an unprecedented impact on the mental health of Hong Kong citizens. There was no exception with students. They faced greater adjustment challenges following the full resumption to normalcy,” a government spokesman was quoted as saying in the statement. 

School principals can refer students with severe mental health needs to the psychiatric specialist services of the Hospital Authority. After triage and screening, those students in urgent cases will be given priority

“In view of the recent upward trend of student suicide cases, the government has launched the Mechanism to help schools identify students with higher suicide risk early and provide appropriate support to these students as quickly as possible, thereby building a stronger safety net for them," he added.

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According to data from Hong Kong’s primary and secondary schools, which are required to report such cases to the government, there were 21 suspected fatal suicide cases in 2020, 25 in 2021 and as many in 2022.

As of October this year, the city’s schools reported at least 27 suspected fatal suicide cases, the city’s education chief said in a written reply to a related question at the Legislative Council on Nov 22.

The first tier involves assisting schools in identifying students at an early stage with higher suicide risk or mental health needs to give them priority for timely and appropriate intervention, according to the statement. 

Schools should review the mental health needs of students with the school's multidisciplinary team, give priority to caring for and counselling students at higher risk of suicide, and provide timely assistance and seek professional counselling or treatment services. 

The second tier includes organizing an off-campus support network through cross-departmental, cross-professional and cross-sectoral cooperation to enhance external support for schools in the short term. 

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If schools have difficulty in deploying manpower to meet the needs of students, the Education Bureau will assist in referring cases to the off-campus support network team, which is coordinated and arranged by the Social Welfare Department. 

The team will contact the students concerned as soon as possible and arrange follow-up services, including emergency intervention services covering assessments, support and counselling in individual, group or online format.

For the third tier, school principals can refer students with severe mental health needs to the psychiatric specialist services of the Hospital Authority. After triage and screening, those students in urgent cases will be given priority. The HA has set up a telephone consultation hotline specifically for school principals to provide them with professional advice.

The HKSAR government said it will closely monitor the operation of the mechanism.