Every Mind Matters!
Regardless of race, religion, and ethnicity
MindMatters, officially titled 'Preparing and Deploying Ethnic Minority Lay Leaders to Promote Mental Well-Being Among Hong Kong’s Major Ethnic Minority Communities,' is a two-year project running from April 2022 to March 2024. It is led by the Division of Public Policy at HKUST and supported by the Mental Health Initiatives Funding Scheme of the Hong Kong Government. The project aims to promote mental health awareness among Hong Kong's major ethnic minorities, including Pakistanis, Indians, Nepalis, and Filipinos.
As the title implies, we seek to provide a contextualized relational space that allows the lay leaders to communicate mind-to-mind, and heart-to-heart, with community members regarding mental health support and encouragement, in a culturally and language-adaptive context.
Background
The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in early 2020, has drastically altered our world. It has not only affected our physical well-being with border closures, economic disruptions, social distancing measures, and the tragic loss of loved ones but has also significantly impacted our mental health. Inevitably, Hong Kong is among the many places across the globe grappling with the pandemic's effects. The long-term consequences, such as job losses, social isolation, and reduced business activities, have compounded the existing job and cost-of-living pressures, further affecting the collective mental well-being of the city's population.
The impact of COVID-19 on marginalized communities, particularly ethnic minority groups, has been especially severe. These groups have historically contributed significantly to Hong Kong's development as a vibrant international hub. However, structural issues such as income inequality, discrepancies in educational attainment, job discrimination, and communication gaps often receive insufficient attention. The pandemic has further accentuated these social divides.
In light of the inadequate attention given to the mental well-being of ethnic minority communities in Hong Kong, especially during the pandemic, we felt compelled to launch MindMatters. Through close collaboration with relevant stakeholders, our goal is to reach out to existing community leaders, provide them opportunities for Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training, and enable them to share the knowledge they've acquired with their communities. As suggested by our title, we aim to create a contextualized relational space that allows lay leaders to communicate mind-to-mind and heart-to-heart with community members about mental health support and encouragement.
Project Vision
Raising the level of awareness surrounding mental health and its related issues
Through our emphasis on ethnic minorities, we aim to remedy the lack of connection between Hong Kong's ethnic minorities and professional mental health support services locally, and to destigmatize the conversation surrounding mental health.
Building a pioneer generation of ‘lay leaders’
We aim to train lay leaders with ethnic minority backgrounds in mental health first aid so as to promote community-based mental well-being support networks and set the foundation for early identification of ethnic minority individuals with particular mental health needs.
Destigmatizing mental health issues
In long run, we hope that MindMatters’ efforts will eventually result in a complete destigmatization on the notions surrounding mental health and mental health issues, especially among ethnic minority communities in Hong Kong.
