A murder occurred in Hollywood Plaza Diamond Head last Friday (2nd), and the police said that the suspected murderer had a psychiatric record, which triggered the community's attention to mental health services. Professor Lam Yi-sing of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration of HKU pointed out today (4 December) that there is a need to review the shortcomings of existing mental health services, and that it will be difficult to solve the problem without increasing resources.

He also pointed out that there is currently no triage system for mental health services, and patients may have to wait for a long time to receive treatment, and suggested that the Government consider adding mental health services to district health centres or having family doctors assist in triage to provide services for people with mild mental illness.

Hong Kong's social resources for psychiatric patients have been inadequate. (Profile photo / Photo by Yu Junliang)

Professor Lam Yi-sing of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration of HKU pointed out after attending the TV programme that mental health services currently exist in Hong Kong, but a tragic eradication has occurred recently, and he believes that there is a need to review the lack of services. He also mentioned that there are currently more than 1,000 psychiatrists and clinical psychologists in Hong Kong, who have a huge workload to serve the whole Hong Kong people, and frankly said that it will be difficult to solve the problem without investing more resources in mental health services.

He also indicated that it is difficult to train a large number of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists in a short period of time, and suggested that foreign practices should be used to provide training for existing registered social workers and counsellors to enable them to support patients.

Lam suggested that reference to foreign practices should be provided to existing registered social workers and counsellors to enable them to provide support to patients. (Profile picture)

Mr Lam also pointed out that there is currently no triage system for mental health services in Hong Kong, and patients may have to wait for a long time to receive treatment, urging the authorities to study how to shorten the gap between follow-up visits once a month or even once every two weeks.

He suggested that the Government consider adding mental health services to DHCs or having family doctors assist in triage for people with mild mental illness, while specialists focus on more serious cases.

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