Stress program comes up short

Baptist University aims to recruit 280 tertiary students for an online program designed to help them deal with stress, but recruitment is still far short of its target two months in.

The online cognitive behavioral therapy program, Rest Online, began last year, with a HK$900,000 subsidy from the University Grants Committee. The program has received only 100 applications since recruitment began in June.

The university wants to test the effectiveness of this new, free mental health service, which aims to reduce psychological distress and symptoms of anxiety or depression.

"Rest Online is an online counseling service designed for local tertiary students, and has web and smartphone app versions to make it more convenient," Pan Jiayan, the program's principal investigator and an associate professor at HKBU's department of social work, said.

"Through this program, we hope to help tertiary students manage their stress and improve their mental health," Pan said.

The online service uses Cantonese in its counseling services and comprises eight weekly online modules and an online forum. Reminders, bookings, internal messages and self-evaluation assessments will be delivered on the program website or mobile app.

To evaluate its effectiveness, participants will take a test upon completion and a followup test three months later.

Offline counseling will be provided by a counselor from the Mental Health Association of Hong Kong, who will provide face-to-face sessions and a telephone followup to review the service's progress.

cissy.so@singtaonewscorp.com