HKU Bulletin June 2011 (Vol. 12 No. 2)

A $5 million Boost to Research A new $5 million grant from the Lotteries Fund will boost the University's research into suicide prevention. The grant, approved with the endorsement of the government's Social Welfare Department (SWD), has been awarded to the HKJC Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention in the Faculty of Social Sciences. It will allow scholars to undertake a three- year community-based project on suicide prevention (2011-2014) in a selected geographic area of Hong Kong. Jointly initiated by the University and the SWD, the project reflects a joint commitment to tackling Hong Kong's worrying suicide rate. "We are delighted with this grant," said the Centre's Director, Professor Paul Yip Siu-fai. "It is an example of how knowledge exchange can benefit the community. We are ready to make a difference." Hong Kong's suicide rate amongst men aged between 15 and 24 has risen by a staggering 30 per cent since 2008, yet the government is doing little to curtail the trend according the Director of our Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention. Professor Paul Yip Siu-fai says Hong Kong's suicide rate is 20-30 per cent higher than countries like the UK, the US and Australia, yet we lag behind those nations in promoting suicide prevention measures. "In England, the US and Australia they have a national strategy," he says. "In Hong Kong we have nothing like that. Our Centre has been trying to play a quasi-role in promoting suicide prevention, the government has recently awarded us a grant of $5 million for research into suicide prevention. But you need to have a co-ordinated holistic approach to tackling this problem, at the moment it's piecemeal, the government reacts to cluster suicides rather than being proactive in preventing them." The group of cluster suicides last year, when six people on one public housing estate committed suicide in a three month period prompted a public outcry. But Professor Yip says these deaths were preventable. A fatal disconnection "All were young people and most were unemployed, or not in school. This leads to a disconnection which is at the root of all these problems. If young people are in school, even if they hate it, they still have friends and schoolmates. Once they are out of the school system, if they are not employed they become disconnected." "We have found that it is the unemployed youths that drive these figures up. Also they are male and males are not good at seeking help. Most of the Post-80s youths spend their time on the Internet and playing Internet games, and often do not see real people. It could be that this virtual connection is not benefitting them and they become unable to relate to people and society in general." "They feel they don't belong, so whether they commit suicide or not doesn't matter because they feel nobody cares. They drop out of school because no-one cares whether they do or not, they don't get a job for the same reason." They are frustrated and depressed and see no hope in sight." Family dysfunction and lack of family support increase the risk of young people engaging in so- called deviant behaviour, for example, suicide, drug abuse, smoking, or compensation dating. High-risk factors Professor Yip says, "Those who commit suicide usually have low self esteem, and they do not have a good social support system. Being unemployed or out of school increases the suicide risk considerably. One thing we are trying to do is either keep them in school happily or give them something they are interested in doing. If they have nothing to do then they just get more depressed." He suggests vocational training. "But one problem is that our industries are not increasing as fast as the number of graduates, so there's a discrepancy between supply and demand. The available jobs in Hong Kong are limited to a small number of industries like the financial or service industry, if you're not good at these two things then it's very hard to get a job." "There are very few jobs for bakers, electricians, plumbers, or car mechanics. Also there is a prejudice amongst young people that these are not good jobs and that you have to be dumb to do these jobs. We (especially parents) should not have this attitude." He sees suicide prevention as a two-pronged approach of education and employment. "These two are the so-called up-stream problems. If you can solve these problems then you can lower the suicide rate." "If you can put a dollar sum on the human capital that is wasted through suicides annually we estimate it to be around $1.6 billion a year. Spending just a fraction of that on prevention will help." A solvable problem So why is so little being done? "Prejudice and stigma," he says and cites the funding available for cancer research, and cancer prevention campaigns. Every year in Hong Kong 1,000 people kill themselves. Suicide ranks number seven as a leading cause of death and number four in terms of years of life lost. Roughly 150 people die in car accidents each year but how much money do we spend on accident prevention, how much money do we spend on suicide prevention?" Preventing suicide in Hong Kong has not received sufficient concern from the community and the Government compared to other illness like Cancer, HIV and AIDS. "Those who commit suicide are mentally distressed but it's very fixable, early intervention could save these people." Professor Yip cites two factors necessary to lowering the rate. "We need to make school a more interesting place for young people so they stop dropping out. Then we need to give them a decent job, with a decent salary, not let them work in a job without any prospects for a pittance. If this was my job, I would be wondering what life was all about." He suggests adopting the prevention strategies common in western countries, like the US, the UK and Australia. "They accept suicide prevention as a national strategy, adopting a public health approach to involve all stakeholders in the community. They have a lot of campaigns, there's a lot of public awareness, less stigmatization of suicide and also they value support services for vulnerable members of society much more than we do in Hong Kong. Preventing suicide involves multilayer intervention from community stakeholders. We need to build a consortium in the community to connect the disconnected. We need a concerted holistic approach to solving this problem. We need to win their hearts today, otherwise they will break our hearts tomorrow." Professor Yip Siu-fai Research 23 The University of Hong Kong Bulletin June 2011 Falling Through the Cracks The shocking rise in suicides amongst young men can be blamed on a severe lack of social support, says one HKU expert.