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S063-3

The Educational Training for Psychiatrists, Mental Health Professionals and
Family Care Doctors in Hong Kong

Roger Ng

Vice President (General Affairs), Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists, HKSAR, China

Content: A recent territory-wide epidemiological study in Hong Kong found that 16% of people are
suffering from various forms of anxiety and depressive disorders, suggesting that there is a high
degree of health care burden resulting from common mental disorders in Hong Kong (Lam et al.,
2015). The current mental health system in Hong Kong is heavily reliant on secondary care in
diagnosing and managing patients with common mental disorders, thereby diluting the intensity of
psychiatric care required for people with serious mental illness. Due to stigma associated with
mental illness and the long waiting time for first medical appointment in specialist outpatient clinics,
there is a frequent delay in the diagnosis and management of patients with common mental disorders.
Such delay in timely interventions may lead to illness chronicity, development of treatment-resistant
symptoms, and social costs to the community (Wang et al., 2007). There is thus an urgent need to
ensure that there is an adequate supply of trained primary care doctors to diagnose, treat, and monitor
the progress of patients suffering from these common mental disorders. While pharmacological
interventions for common mental disorders may be beneficial for some patients, there is an
increasing amount of evidence for the benefits of psychological interventions for common mental
disorders. While some medical practitioners may be interested and proficient in delivering such
psychological interventions, accessibility of such psychological care may be restricted due to high
demand volume, high treatment costs, and time constraints associated with medical care. As such,
allied health professionals might play a pivotal role in the delivery of psychological interventions to
these patients with common mental disorders. Such arrangement will increase accessibility and
acceptability by the patients, as well as free up the medical resources for intensive care of patients
with severe mental illness. Therefore, the training of allied health professionals in the competent
delivery of evidence-based psychological treatments is an important agenda for improving the
current model of care of patients with common mental disorders in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong
College of Psychiatrists has been responsible for providing psychiatric training for the trainees and
fellows of the college, as well as offering training to other mental health professionals and primary
care doctors. The presentation will discuss the current training programmes offered to these various
professionals in Hong Kong and understand how the current systems in Hong Kong may be
compared with the neighbouring Asian countries.

References:
Lam, L., Wong, C., Wang, M.J., Chan, W.C., Chen, E., Ng, R.,…Bebbington, P. (2015). Prevalence,
psychosocial correlates and service utilization of depressive and anxiety disorders in Hong Kong -
The Hong Kong Mental Morbidity Survey (HKMMS). Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric