The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Dr Law Chi-kwong, today (December 7) officiated at "Enjoy Mental Wellness" ceremony, the finale of 2019 Mental Health Month (MHM), and presented prizes to the winners of MHM activities.
With the theme "Enjoy Mental Wellness. Seek Support from Others", the 2019 MHM aimed to encourage the public to raise awareness on mental health starting from themselves.
Addressing the ceremony, Dr Law pointed out that the Government has raised the funding for Integrated Community Centres for Mental Wellness (ICCMWs) to approximately $427 million in 2019-20, representing over three times of the resources when the service first started in October, 2010.
Dr Law added that as at September this year, these ICCMWs have provided rehabilitation services for over 81 000 ex-mentally ill and needy persons, with some 24 000 public education activities held. In addition, the Government expanded the service scope of ICCMWs to secondary school students aged under 15 in 2019-20 to strengthen professional support for youths and their families. Since July this year, the Social Welfare Department has deployed five mobile vans for publicity on mental health services.
Members of the Organising Committee of 2019 MHM consist of 12 non-governmental organisations providing mental health rehabilitation services in Hong Kong. The Committee organised a series of publicity and education activities in the community and on campus in the past six months, including a sharing session on rehabilitation of ex-mentally ill persons in which participants not only gained a better understanding of mentally illnesses, but also learned how to handle individual mental issues.
Also officiating at the ceremony were the Chairman of the Sub-committee on Public Education on Rehabilitation of the Rehabilitation Advisory Committee, Dr Raymond Leung; the Commissioner for Rehabilitation of the Labour and Welfare Bureau (LWB), Ms Manda Chan; the Ambassador of 2019 MHM, Ms Ranya Lee; and the Chairperson of the Organising Committee, Dr Fung Cheung-tim.
Organised by the LWB in collaboration with various bureaux/departments, public organisations and non-governmental organisations, the MHM echoes with the World Mental Health Day, an initiative of the World Federation for Mental Health. The public may visit the MHM Facebook page (Chinese only) for details.
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