There is help out there. These are 24-hour hotline if you need to talk:
Suicide Prevention Service: 2382 0000
The Samaritans: 2896 0000
The Samaritan Befrienders has extended its online chat forum from 8pm to 2am at help4suicide.com.hk
Society for the Promotion of Hospice Care: 2868 1211
The government has formed a new committee to try to find the root cause of the recent sharp rise in student suicides.
The Committee on Prevention of Student Suicides is made up of 20 people from different areas of the government, including education and mental health.
The chairperson is University of Hong Kong HKU Professor Paul Yip Siu-fai, who is also the Director of the Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention at HKU.
From this month, the committee will look into possible causes of student suicides by analysing each case. It will take action if it finds that the causes are linked to failings by the education department.
Students’ suicide Facebook posts calls for update on HK’s counselling strategies
They will submit a plan to the Secretary for Education proposing short-term, mid-term and long-term measures to prevent the suicides of young people of all ages, according to the Education Bureau.
Hsu Siu-man, of the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (FYG), is one of the committee members. “Through the committee, I hope to come up with practical plans to lower the pressure on students, and reduce the rate of student suicides,” she said.
If you are struggling, there are many ways to reach out for help from the FYG. The non-profit group offers help via a hotline, an online counselling service called uTouch, and Facebook and WhatsApp messaging.
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Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (FYG)’s counselling hotline: 2777 8899
(available from 2pm-2am, Monday to Saturday).
uTouch online counselling service
uTouch Facebook (Available from 2pm - 2am, Monday to Saturday)