HONG KONG – The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government has enhanced measures of a three-tier school-based emergency mechanism to strengthen the support for students with suicidal risk as it extended the mechanism to Dec 31, 2025.

“After reviewing relevant circumstances and gauging the views of the sector, the government announced to extend and enhance the Mechanism in ‘The Chief Executive's 2024 Policy Address’ to reinforce support for the mental health of children and adolescents,” a government spokesman said on Friday.

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Under the enhanced arrangement, the government will strengthen the training for school personnel and parent education in the first-tier mechanism, with a view to enhance their capability in identifying and supporting students with a higher suicidal risk.

In the second-tier mechanism, the support services will cover new and existing cases involving students with a higher suicidal risk in all publicly funded secondary schools.

Schools can contact the “off-campus support network” team in their district directly. In such cases, the team will match and refer the students or their families to other community support services as needed.

The off-campus team will also strengthen communication with the schools’ multidisciplinary teams to ensure continuous support for the cases.

As for the third-tier mechanism, the SAR government will provide clear guidelines for schools to clarify the criteria for considering cases that are suitable for referral to the Hospital Authority’s psychiatric specialist services.

This allows the needs of different students to be catered for in a more precise way.

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After triage and screening, students who are considered in a stable condition may also receive first-tier in-school support, and services from the second-tier “off-campus support network” arranged by their schools while awaiting psychiatric services.

“Responsible personnel at each tier will maintain close communication with school personnel and parents to enhance collaboration among the tiers for building a stronger safety net for students,” said the spokesman.

To strengthen school personnel’s knowledge and skills of promoting students’ mental health, the Education Bureau will organize a number of thematic training courses this school year, and provide lesson plans and short videos on students’ mental health, the government said in a statement.

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It will also continue collaborating with the Social Welfare Department to arrange for non-governmental organizations to visit secondary schools in need to organize mental health activities.

There will also be thematic parent education workshops and seminars on a regular basis, added government.