​The Government today announced the enhanced measures of the Three-tier School-based Emergency Mechanism to strengthen the support for students with suicidal risk, and extended the mechanism to December 31, 2025.

Under the enhanced measures, the Government will strengthen the training for school personnel and parent education in the first-tier mechanism, to enhance their capability in identifying and supporting students with a higher suicidal risk.

In the second-tier mechanism, the support services will cover new and existing cases involving students with a higher suicidal risk in all publicly funded secondary schools.

Schools can contact the “off-campus support network” team in their district directly, and the team will match and refer the students or their families to other community support services as needed.

The off-campus team will also strengthen communication with the schools’ multidisciplinary teams to ensure continuous support for the cases.

As for the third-tier mechanism, the Government will provide clear guidelines for schools to clarify the criteria for considering cases that are suitable for referral to the Hospital Authority’s psychiatric specialist services. This allows the needs of different students to be catered for in a more precise way.

After triage and screening, students who are considered in a stable condition may also receive first-tier in-school support, and services from the second-tier “off-campus support network” arranged by their schools while awaiting psychiatric services.

To strengthen school personnel’s knowledge and skills of promoting students’ mental health, the Education Bureau will organise a number of thematic training courses this school year, and provide lesson plans and short videos on students’ mental health.

It will also continue collaborating with the Social Welfare Department to arrange for non-governmental organisations to visit secondary schools in need to organise mental health activities.

There will also be thematic parent education workshops and seminars on a regular basis.