Hong Kong children suffer greater mental stress and parents can’t cope, report warns
Report by paediatric groups points to pressure to perform well at school as major issue, pushing some parents to the brink of emotional breakdown
Children in Hong Kong have suffered a worrying decline in their mental health over the past decade and parents are being pushed to breaking point as a result, a new report suggests.
The city’s young people are increasingly unhappy after enduring two decades of “ineffective ad hoc and remedial government strategies” on youth mental health, according to a damning report by the Hong Kong Paediatric Society and the Hong Kong Paediatric Foundation released on Sunday.
“There was no designated section for children in the [chief executive] policy addresses, not to mention a comprehensive child health policy and the children’s commission,” foundation chairman Dr Chan Chok-wan said.
The report includes results of a survey on stress facing children and parents as well as an analysis of children’s mental health.
It says the government has failed to tackle the “root causes” of declining mental health among young people, and this has consequently resulted in a “vicious circle” in which parents are pushed to the brink of emotional breakdowns.