Suicide in Hong Kong
[citation needed] Factors in suicide include the Hong Kong education system and pressure from families.
Deputy director-general Wu Baocheng believes that current social values are the main source of student pressure: "This competition starts from kindergartens, the first things students learn in school was to score full marks in all tasks, instead of building up their own personality."
He also mentioned that the reasons for success in the Hong Kong education system was due to the competitive learning environment.
According to research from City University, almost one-third of teenagers (age 10–14) in Hong Kong have been identified as potentially suicidal.
[8] There are four common suicide method in Hong Kong; jumping, poisoning, hanging, and charcoal burning, for which most of the materials required are easily accessible.
As Hong Kong's buildings are typically built with multiple floors, jumping is a relatively 'easy' method.
On March 21, 2016, the Legislative Council Education Affairs Committee held a special meeting regarding student suicide.
The Secretary for Education, Mr. Eddie Ng Hak-Kim said that in consideration of the urgency of the incident, he decided to allocate $5 million to the special services and provide a $5,000 "Special Allowance for the "Family and School Co-operation Scheme" to all primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong.
[10] Her younger brother said that she was suspected to be affected by work pressure before her death and that the principal had many unreasonable demands.
McCarthy shows that the education system in Hong Kong carries a high pressure on students, also to the teachers.
[11] The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government provided five major measures to help students in September 2016.
The five major measures are as follows: Firstly, Set up a task force to comprehensively understand the causes of suicide analysis and propose prevention methods.
[13] The Secretary for Education, Mr. Eddie Ng Hak-Kim, cited the report of the Suicide Prevention Committee on October 14, 2016, saying that the suicide of college students stemmed from the lack of career planning, and students nowadays are not able to handle their pressure and give up their life easily.
The Samaritan Hong Kong is a non-profit and non-religious group which providing confidential emotional support to people who are suicidal or are in general distress.
The founder 杜學魁, formerly known as The Suicide Prevention Society, launched with a telephone counselling service at Shanlin Road.
The Ho Man Tin Club was officially opened until 1980, due to the lack of human resources.
In the same year, with the assistance of the Social Welfare Department, the Housing Department has allocated the new clubhouse, staff office, and hotline service at the ground floor of the Lam Kam Estate, and the Shun Lee Estate Club will continue to serve as hotline service and training.
Befriending allows every callers to express their fears, worries, hopeless and feelings, in complete confidence, to a Samaritan volunteer who listens supportively, unconditionally and non-judgmentally.
