HELP ME

LET THE LIGHT IN

HELP ME IS A GROUNDBREAKING NEW PATHWAY TO SUPPORT THOSE STRUGGLING WITH THEIR MENTAL HEALTH.

ACCESSIBLE INSTANTLY & AT ANY TIME, HELP ME IS BEING DESIGNED TO SIMPLIFY ACCESS TO MENTAL HEALTH INFORMATION AND SUPPORT IN HONG KONG.

AVAILABLE IN BOTH ENGLISH AND TRADITIONAL CHINESE, HELP ME IS A VIRTUAL CHAT ASSISTANT DEVELOPED BY THE MENTAL HEALTH CHARITY MIND HK.

MIND HK’S CORE MISSION IS TO ENSURE THAT NO ONE HAS TO FACE A MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEM ALONE; THROUGH HELP ME, USERS WILL BE ABLE TO QUICKLY FIND MENTAL HEALTH INFORMATION AND SUPPORT VIA THE MIND HK WEBSITE AND FACEBOOK MESSENGER.

MENTAL HEALTH IS COMPLEX AND LARGELY MISUNDERSTOOD. THE HELP ME PROJECT SEEKS TO ENCOURAGE USERS TO ASK QUESTIONS ANONYMOUSLY ABOUT THEIR OWN OR OTHERS’ MENTAL HEALTH, AND TO ACCESS CLINICALLY-REVIEWED INFORMATION THROUGH AN ONLINE PLATFORM.

THROUGH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING, THE INTERACTIVE CHAT PLATFORM WILL SIGNPOST USERS TO RELEVANT MENTAL HEALTH INFORMATION (ON SYMPTOMS, CAUSES, TREATMENT OPTIONS ETC.) AND MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT SERVICES IN HONG KONG AND ONLINE.

ALL INFORMATION WILL BE BASED ON MIND HK CONTENT. MIND HK WILL BEGIN PILOTING HELP ME IN EARLY 2020. PLEASE WATCH THIS PAGE FOR UPDATES.

About Help Me

ABOUT HELP ME

Help Me is a project of the mental health charity Mind HK.

The project was established in 2018 as a collaboration between Mind HK and the family of the late Captain Laurence W. F. Grant, formerly an officer in the British Army who lost his battle with mental health in northern Laos in October 2017.

At the time of his death, Laurence was seeking to develop a new mental health charity in Hong Kong, where he lived and worked, to increase access to affordable mental health care and to raise awareness of issues surrounding mental health. The charity was to have been called Help Me.

Once live, Help Me will deploy the latest advancements in Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing to provide users with a virtual mental health counsellor capable of providing tailored and intuitive mental health advice, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, and to signpost users to additional support online and in Hong Kong as needed.

Help Me will draw its information from mental health professionals, patients and other practitioners, as well as from a range of medically trusted online sources. Help Me will also benefit from sophisticated data-processing technology to enable the continuous expansion and refinement of its database based on the questions being asked by users.

Mental Heath in Hong Kong

MENTAL HEALTH IN

HONG KONG

One in seven people in Hong Kong will experience a mental health problem in their lifetime, but only 26 per cent will seek help.

Adults in Hong Kong are unaware of available services in Hong Kong, including readily accessible online services. Mind HK’s 2018 research found that approximately 60 per cent of people in Hong Kong do not know where to seek help outside of hospitals, for instance NGOs, clinics, and other support services.

Research conducted by Mind HK in June 2019 showed that of 500 adults aged 16-40, 20 per cent had not heard of any hotline nor online counselling help-seeking platforms. Such services are highly valuable as they can be accessed immediately and for free/low-cost. 15 per cent of those surveyed also have never sought help from anyone, including a friend or family member – a clear indicator accurate and useful information (both in English and Traditional Chinese) on mental health is a necessity to continue raising awareness and breaking the stigma around mental health in Hong Kong.

Support Help Me

SUPPORT HELP ME

The Help Me project is currently in the development phase and has not yet gone live, but there are many ways that you can help!

We are in the process of assembling our database of mental health-related questions and other subject material. If you have any question or topic that you believe Help Me should cover, then please submit it using the contact form below.

We would also be glad to hear from you if you would simply like to know more about Help Me or if you would be interested in supporting the project in any way.