Coronavirus pandemic is unleashing a mental health crisis Hong Kong is unprepared for

The impacts of the stress of economic uncertainty, risks to health and restrictions on daily life are likely to last long after the end of the pandemic
Having already been caught ill-prepared by the current wave of Covid-19, Hong Kong cannot afford to ignore its ticking mental health time bomb

Anson Au

Published: 8:15am, 10 Mar 2022

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The most insidious poisons are those that linger the longest. The surge in Covid-19 case numbers in Hong Kong in recent weeks has bludgeoned the city’s public health defences.

Pundits have rightly turned their attention to how to curb the spread of Covid-19, but they seem to assume that everything will return to normal after it passes. This could not be further from the truth. We are faced with a deeper mental health crisis unleashed by the pandemic, the effects of which will be felt long after Covid-19 fades.

Having studied stress for years, I have observed that it is one of the most significant yet most underestimated plagues of modern society. Stress is a matter of life and death.

It is a precursor to mental disorders, like depression and suicide ideation, and diseases of despair, like alcoholism and substance abuse. Stress also indirectly increases the risk of major heart diseases and all-cause mortality, an effect that can begin as early as childhood.

Even more worrying, stressors have only grown in number and magnitude, and stress has continued to reach new highs in the time that I have studied it. With it, mental disorders have also grown.

Epidemiological data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which is used by the World Health Organization, shows that the incidence rate of new patients with depressive disorders in China increased by roughly 10 per cent from 2003 to 2018.

During this period, the incidence rates of other disorders like substance use and eating disorders have notched new heights or retained their ground. When we turn to the prevalence of mental disorders, the picture grows bleaker, with nearly every major disorder hovering around the same rate or increasing over the past decade.

Mainland China has begun taking steps to address this burgeoning crisis of stress and mental health, discussing safeguards, such as imposing limits on working hours in sectors notorious for overwork like information technology.

Yet, Hong Kong very visibly trails behind. For far too long, the financial hardship, job precarity and inequality that aggravate stress have gone completely unaddressed in Hong Kong.

The pandemic has exacerbated these existing stressors. The latest wave has come to infect nearly 5 per cent of Hong Kong’s total population and is likely to cause a range of long-lasting health problems on patients, as new issues emerge.

A man stands on a staircase in Wah Yu House on February 15. The block at Wah Fu Estate in Aberdeen was placed under lockdown for Covid-19 testing following an outbreak. Infections in Hong Kong have since surged. Photo: Edmond So

What’s more, the pandemic is bringing job disruptions and spells of unemployment to hundreds of thousands of workers in nearly every job sector, but most of all the retail, service and tourism sectors. The impact of this hammer-blow to people’s financial well-being is likely to last for years, even after the Covid-19 pandemic ends.

Stress, mental health disorders and other diseases are now a coiled spring ready to be released after the pandemic. Already, there are signs that residents are cracking under the strain.

An October 2021 poll of secondary school students by the Federation of Youth Groups found that half of the students reported high levels of stress and showed signs of depression. More recently, reports of suicide attempts have rocked the city as quarantine and lockdown measures ramp up.

Our best public health science tells us to expect more of the same, including higher levels of stress and with it, greater prevalence and incidence rates of mental health disorders and health issues in general.

02:19

Covid-19 is taking a ‘deep toll’ on Hong Kong's mental health, top government adviser Wong Yan-lung

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that it pays to be prepared. The Hong Kong government must act pre-emptively to revitalise the city’s ailing mental health and social resources to avoid being caught off guard by the coming crisis after Covid-19.

In the short-term, this means providing more funding to replenish the diminishing ranks of social workers, and setting up a permanent unit to oversee the population’s mental health within the Department of Health.

In the long term, this means developing more sustainable workplace policies and equitable wage laws to lower inequality – and enforcing these new regulations, just as mainland China plans to.

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The costs are clear if we do not act now. The repercussions of stress have the potential to lower health expectancy and overburden our health care system. And as quality of life in the city falls, the size, talent and integrity of our future workforce will be compromised and, by extension, so will the very economy that we are so proud of.

Mainland China has already seen this bigger picture and responded accordingly. It is high time Hong Kong takes note.

Anson Au, PhD, is an assistant professor of sociology at Hong Kong Polytechnic University