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Anti-government protesters gather at Chater Garden in Central for an
approved rally on January 19. (Photo Courtesy of Felix Wong SCMP)
Mental Health Crisis
According to an article in volume than the 2014 Occupy Central Move- About 90 per cent of the respond-
six, issue 12 of The Lancet, a medi- ment. Post-traumatic stress disorder ents from the survey reported that
cal journal published by the Univer- symptoms were also estimated to be the social movement had affected
sity of Hong Kong academics, more six times higher, with 1.9 million them psychologically. Journalists
than two million Hong Kong adults more adults compared to 10 years and property management staff
have shown the symptoms of post- ago. were found to be especially vulner-
traumatic stress disorder during the The Hong Kong College of Psy- able to trauma exposure during the
ongoing political unrest in the city. chiatrists also conducted a mental social unrest.
Sam is one of those. health survey on various groups of “We refer to trauma exposures
Questionnaires were sent to more people, including journalists, prop- as one or more of the following:
than 18,000 residents aged 18 or erty management staff, teachers, directly experiencing trauma, wit-
above between 2009 and 2019. The social workers, and the general pub- nessing trauma, learning that a
result suggested that the prevalence lic between October and December traumatic event occurred to a close
of probable depression is five times 2019. family member or friend, or extreme
higher during the 2019 social unrest repeated exposure to aversive de-
tails of traumatic events due to the
needs of your work,” explains Dr.
May Lam, Vice-President (Censor/
Education) of the Hong Kong Col-
lege of Psychiatrists.
“Those who have direct involve-
ment in the social turmoil due to oc-
cupational needs are more prone to
developing depressive and anxiety
symptoms than other groups of peo-
ple,” Lam adds.
The survey also shows that about
50 per cent of the respondents expe-
rienced feelings of helplessness and
hopelessness.

The police force has been badly stretched by more than six months of protests.
(Photo Courtesy of K. Y. Cheng SCMP)