Building Educators’ Capacity: Timely and Quality Emotional Support For Our Youth

Overview

There is a high prevalence of mental health conditions among youth in Hong Kong, who however have low help-seeking behaviours. Mental health support during adolescence can promote resilience, coping skills, and strong interpersonal relationships, contributing to overall well-being. Educators play an advantageous role in providing the first layer of support to youth compared with other mental health professionals in the community.

Young people who are struggling are shown to be more likely to disclose their distress to selective educators. Despite government's efforts in providing professional development programmes for educators in supporting youth mental health over the past years, educators mentioned lacking in-depth knowledge, skills and confidence on how to talk to troubled students and manage crisis situations from the speaker's team's evaluation of the pilot youth mental health project Coolminds from 2019-2023. Educators also voiced out that they had challenges defining the differences in roles between educators and school social workers or counsellors, making it difficult to support youth within their role boundaries.

It is therefore of paramount importance to build educators’ capacity in providing timely and quality emotional support for the overall mental well-being of our young people. This includes building their awareness, attitudes, literacy and skills to support their students.