Digital Mental Health Screening for Secondary Schools

Suicide is the leading cause of death for youth in Hong Kong.

Every 9.3 days, we lose a youth to this tragedy, where they feel there is no alternative, or help available. And too often, no one knew they were suffering.

The reality is that emotional issues are not easily recognisable, and it is difficult for students to ask for help.

But what if we could detect suicide risk earlier?

What if there was a way for schools to connect with students who are struggling and in need of support? What if all this could be done in a friendly and comfortable way for students, and scalable to all schools across Hong Kong?

This is the “Know My Students” digital mental health screening program.

Led by Dr. Jamie Chiu, we've reimagined clinical-grade psychological tools as a friendly interactive digital story with in-depth analysis to help schools understand the different factors related to poor mental health. Our interactive tool can be deployed to hundreds of students simultaneously, and schools are immediately alerted when a student’s responses indicate they have symptoms of risk.

“Know My Students” has already helped many schools intervene and connect care to students who were thinking about suicide, and uncover the students who were struggling, yet no one knew about.

自殺是香港青年人第一死因。

平均每9.3日一青年人踏上不歸路。往往，他們內心的掙扎並沒有被身邊的人所發現。

要及時發現學生情緒問題有相當的難度，加上學生向外求助也不普遍，造成了一群漏網之魚。

但如果自殺風險可及早識別呢？如果有方法讓學校與具有情緒困擾的學生建立聯繫呢？試幻想這些都以友善、吸引同貼近學生的溝通模式，並可擴展至全港所有學校？

這就是【Know My Students】校園防止自殺應用程式。 由趙博士領導下，我們將臨床心理學評估工具設計為友善的聊天機器人並應用機器學習（machine learning）算法來加強自殺風險預測。我們的聊天機器人可以同時實施給數百名學生。而當學生被發現具有自殺風險時，學校會立即得到警報。

【Know My Students】已幫助香港多所學校及早識別那些漏網之魚學生及防止了多名企圖自殺個案。