Many mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression, stress and insomnia, are highly prevalent in Hong Kong. Prevention and early intervention of these conditions, including their subthreshold ones, are crucial because these conditions are associated with increased risk of functional impairment, somatic comorbidity and suicide, leading to substantial economic costs. However, the current availability of mental healthcare recourses and manpower are inadequate to meet the increasing demands for prevention and early intervention, as indicated by lengthy waiting lists for psychiatric cases. MBIs are safe and effective in improving mental well-being but there are some limitations of traditional mindfulness classes, like high demand of time, space, travel, manpower and financial burden. Additionally, without ongoing support, sustaining mindfulness practices is struggling for many people after completion of the 8-week course.

To address these challenges and limitations of traditional mindfulness classes, MBIs will be delivered via a gamified mobile app for people with mental health needs or interests to learn and practice mindfulness in daily life. The complimentary hybrid delivery mode will be adopted. After face-to-face workshop teaching the basics of mindfulness or the 8-week courses, it is followed by several weeks of learning and practice on the mobile app. The mobile app will offer a collection of tailored mindfulness practice audio recordings designed specifically for busy people in Hong Kong. Mindfulness audios are crafted by different teachers with different lengths, which enables participants to engage in mindfulness practices anytime and anywhere seamlessly and effortlessly. The app's convenience and low resource requirement can expand its accessibility to those who may encounter difficulty participating in in-person mindfulness training.

The mindfulness mobile app is aimed to enhance the mental well-being of more than 1000 users with mental health issues or seeking for mental health help. This early intervention of mental illness is expected to mitigate symptoms of depression and anxiety, reducing the demands for following psychiatric treatments and thereby reducing the financial burden on individuals and healthcare system.

Our project aims to benefit at least 1000 individuals with mental health problems (such as subthreshold depression, anxiety, stress or insomnia) or with willing to improve mental health status. The participants can be recruited from various channels, such as social media, our mindfulness related research or service projects, primary care clinics, hospitals, community NGO centers, and district health centers (DHCs).

2024

Healthcare, Mental Health, Well-being