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Published: 10:06, September 23, 2022 | Updated: 14:46, September 23, 2022
Distressing times
By Ao Yulu
Published:10:06, September 23, 2022 Updated:14:46, September 23, 2022 By Ao Yulu

COVID-19 has created a mental health crisis among Hong Kong people, with more workers getting stressed. Experts are worried, urging employers to offer their staff adequate and professional counseling services. Ao Yulu reports from Hong Kong.

Having been haunted by the thought of suicide for several days, Eunice Yang registered for a therapy service via the company she worked for as an intern. Overwhelmed by anxiety and pressure of workloads, the young graduate who was struggling to secure a full-time job offer noticed the warning signal of her mental problem and sought help.

But the therapy service her employer had purchased from a third party failed to be promptly delivered. “I was on the brink of committing suicide, but the earliest counseling session I could join would be the next workday evening,” recalls Yang.

The lengthy wait was depressing as it required her to fill a self-assessment form before the therapy could start. “But it’s hard for someone in such a situation to gauge the degree of his or her mental stress,” she says.

Yang is among a growing number of workers in Hong Kong who are plagued by mental health problems and desperate to seek professional and effective solutions.

According to a report cited by Mind HK — a local mental health charity group — one in every four workers in Hong Kong had symptoms of depression and anxiety, with 18 percent of them requiring psychological treatment. However, 73 percent of Hong Kong adults in a survey conducted by the group in 2018 said they were unaware of any mental health support programs provided by their employers.

The situation seems to have worsened following the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020. Research by the University of Hong Kong shows that the pandemic has spawned a mental health crisis, with the stress levels of local residents having jumped by more than 28 percent, the prevalence of anxiety having exceeded 42 percent, and symptoms of depression and unhappiness having doubled during the pandemic, compared with 2016 and 2017.

Hannah McLeod, managing director of City Mental Health Alliance Hong Kong. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Personalizing help

Sound mental health in the workplace has never been more important for employees and employers in Hong Kong. A survey carried out in September 2020 by City Mental Health Alliance Hong Kong — a nonprofit membership organization that aims to create a culture of good mental health for workers — revealed that up to 27 percent of the city’s employees had experienced mental health problems amid the COVID-19 outbreak — higher than the average of 22 percent of the places the organization surveyed in the Asia-Pacific region. So far this year, the number of people in Hong Kong who have complained of mental health problems has climbed to 42 percent, according to the alliance’s latest poll conducted earlier this month.

In a report in 2019, the alliance noted that Hong Kong employers already had to bear high but invisible costs due to their employees’ mental health problems that led to many of them being constantly absent from work, and some having to work longer than required, along with a big staff turnover. The rising costs had exceeded companies’ investments in their employee assistance programs.

When COVID-19 broke out ... we found that the number of our members that had ... carried out mental health awareness campaigns had gone up by 40 percent.

Hannah McLeod, managing director of City Mental Health Alliance Hong Kong 

More employers are now paying attention to the issue and spending more on improving the well-being of their staff. “We have noticed a growing number of companies trying out or introducing in-house psychological support programs for their employees or giving them more assistance through their EAPs since the pandemic began,” says Hannah McLeod, managing director of CMHAHK. “When COVID-19 broke out more than two and a half years ago, we found that the number of our members that had introduced flexible work arrangements and carried out mental health awareness campaigns had gone up by 40 percent.”

These companies have been taking various measures to help their staff. “Some of them offer in-house counseling, some work directly with private organizations, and some recruit professionals directly or through insurance packages,” says McLeod.

However, young employees like Yang may still be disappointed when trying to get professional support from their employers — although companies are aware of the importance of their staff’s mental health, few of them know how to do it better.

A similar situation has developed on the Chinese mainland too. Xue (full name withheld on request), 24, works at a medium-sized company with about 700 employees. She turned to a complimentary online counseling service during the lockdown in Shanghai earlier this year.

The service was arranged by her employer with an agency offering psychological aid. But Xue described the experience as more like a “one-off chitchat” — the person she talked to had no professional psychological training, didn’t offer any guidance or suggestions about what steps should be taken, and was unwilling to talk for even a minute longer.

“Although professional human support is important and effective, there are barriers — it may not suit (the needs of) everyone; there aren’t enough professionals on a per-person basis; and only a small number of people would seek professional human support,” says Megan Lam, co-founder and CEO of Neurum Health — a healthcare tech company that helps workers and individuals to achieve mental well-being in the right manner.

She cited data showing there are currently about 23,000 psychiatrists on the mainland, with a ratio of 1.7 to every 100,000 people. “Human support itself is not scalable, and the system is already overburdened.”

Megan Lam, co-founder and CEO of Neurum Health. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Establishing a caring culture

Social stigma is another stumbling block for people seeking human support to get rid of mental stress, according to Lam and McLeod. “There is a lot of stigma surrounding mental health and it’s very common in Hong Kong,” says McLeod. “Even if someone is ready to seek professional human support, there is still plenty of guesswork involved. For example, whom should that person consult, where to go and how to pick the best professional to meet that person’s needs?” says Lam.

Instead of merely providing last-mile assistance, companies should integrate an end-to-end mind healthcare service as part of their strategy to retain talent ...

Megan Lam, co-founder and CEO of Neurum Health

Nevertheless, the stigma might break down when a culture of caring about people’s well-being is formed within a company, McLeod points out. What the experts say ring true to a certain extent. Young employees like Xue and Yang might feel embarrassed when they walk into a counselling room under the gaze of others. They also find it hard to afford expensive psychological counseling services themselves, and expect their employers to provide therapy services that are secure, affordable and easy to get.

Neurum Health, set up by Lam and Caleb Chiu, developed an online mobile application to cater to the needs of both employers and employees. Users can record their daily mood diary and track their mental health status on the app which also has a skills-based program that enables them to learn practical skills, such as mindset development, situational behavioral and emotional management. The service also suggests techniques for users in nurturing intimate relationships with their partners and parents, and in generating a healthy environment in the workplace.

Employers can observe the overall wellness levels of their staff, based on various indices, through a dashboard, and better plan their organizational strategies, while the personal data of employees are well protected.

“Instead of merely providing last-mile assistance, companies should integrate an end-to-end mind healthcare service as part of their strategy to retain talent — from day-to-day thematic program learning to mental health tracking and human support matching,” Lam suggests.

Wu Zan, founder and CEO of FLOW. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

New trend, fresh opportunities

While more enterprises strive to provide mental health support for their employees, the younger generation is also actively exploring tools to improve their mental wellness at the same time. Whether it’s listening to mental health-related podcast channels, sharing sleep-inducing audios or watching vlogs about mindfulness meditation training on social platforms, the trend is emerging both on the mainland and in Hong Kong.

Mental wellness is as important as physical fitness. Mindfulness meditation could become a lifestyle, just like running, yoga and other forms of sports.

Wu Zan, founder and CEO of FLOW

Mental wellness startup FLOW is among the companies that saw the huge market demand for mental-wellness care. It launched a meditation and wellness mobile app a year ago and also provides offline services. As of mid-September, the company had amassed 175,000 followers on Xiaohongshu — one of China’s hottest lifestyle-sharing social platforms.

FLOW’s founder and CEO Wu Zan says he has noticed an almost 10-fold increase in the number of meditation-related hashtags that users have flagged on social platforms in the past year. He believes the mindfulness meditation trend is driven by a host of factors, such as heavy workloads, pressure from peers, and the uncertainties created by the pandemic. All these circumstances have forced people in a fast-paced society to rethink the essence of life and pursue their well-being rather than just being wealthy.

“The core of meditation is ‘inward looking’ and the ability to look inwards to find peace has become a necessity in our increasingly restless society,” says Wu. It’s not just urbanites who are trying to secure inner peace. Many companies are now aware of the importance of promoting sustainable mental healthcare services and enriching various forms of support, he adds. Apart from basic psychological counseling services, major enterprises are interested in acquiring meditation practice courses for their employees.

FLOW plans to expand its offline meditation studios in top-tier mainland cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Wu expects the company’s offline studios to spark a wave of interest among younger generations.  

“Mental wellness is as important as physical fitness. Mindfulness meditation could become a lifestyle, just like running, yoga and other forms of sports.”

Contact the writer at aoyulu@chinadailyhk.com


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