Emotional Resilience for Family and Teens’ Early Identification and Intervention Programme

Overview

Tung Wah Group of Hospitals Ho Yuk-ching Educational Psychology Service Center has been committed to developing mental health support services for secondary school students since 2017. It has introduced the FRIENDS Resilience Program from Australia and assisted in the translation of training manual into localised Chinese version in 2018-2021. Funded by Phase 2 of Mental Health Initiatives Funding Scheme from Health Bureau, the centre conducted research studies on the framework of ‘Emotional Resilience’ from Professor Daniel Wong Fu Keung, Chair Professor of the Department of Social Work in HKBU, responding to the emotional needs of students after the epidemic.

Through this seminar, research findings from 22/23 and 23/24 academic year will be shared, including the early identification questionnaire and intervention group teaching tools for teens, and the experiences on conducting parent talks and online workshops in order to promote emotional resilience in families. Based on the above research findings, several seminar and sharing sessions were held to share the research findings and insights on school implementation with more than 600 professionals.

Upon validation of ‘Emotional Resilience for Teens’ early identification questionnaire by TWGHs, Hong Kong Baptist University and The University of Hong Kong in 22/23 academic year, the centre adopted the questionnaire for 2,475 students from 19 local secondary schools in 23/24, so as to jointly formulate preventive and interventional support strategies with the school guidance teams. On top of that, the questionnaire has been successfully further shortened from 49 questions to an 18-question version, which will help the industry to more effectively identify and analyse the mental wellbeing of youths in the future.

Besides, 'Emotional Resilience for Teens' intervention group programme has been provided to more than 260 secondary students with emotional needs since 2022. Research has found it effective on improving students' mental health, emotional flexibility and overall emotional resilience. A training manual will be shared to the industry in November 2024 in order to promote early identification and intervention on youth mental health issue.　

Participants of this seminar will understand:
1. theory and framework of 'Emotional Resilience' will be introduced. Participants will be able to learn the importance of Emotional Resilience to youths and parents mental health, from the six areas of ‘emotional flexibility, coping ability, self-kindness, common humanity, family support, and social support';
2. the implementation experiences in applying 'Emotional Resilience for Family and Teens' early identification questionnaire and intervention program in schools for effective screening and strategic planning on prevention and intervention services; and
3. the intervention tools and techniques that can effectively promote mental health, emotional flexibility, coping and self-care in youths and parents.