Prof. Sylvia CHEN (Associate Dean of FHSS, Associate Director of Mental Health Research Centre and Professor of APSS) and Dr Angel LAI (Assistant Professor of APSS) have received support for their project under Phase 2 of the Mental Health Initiatives Funding Scheme (the Funding Scheme) coordinated by the Advisory Committee on Mental Health to develop innovative social services programmes for improving the mental well-being of adolescents and school communities.
Principal Investigator: Prof. Sylvia CHEN
Project Title: Reducing Social Avoidance and Enhancing Prosocial Behaviour among Adolescents with Special Educational Needs
Project Summary: The project aims to foster prosocial behaviour of adolescents with special educational needs (SEN) in transition with the use of virtual reality (VR) technology. It will implement social anxiety intervention based on a cognitive-behavioural approach with a virtual coach acting as the therapist and develop a gamified prosocial VR intervention for adolescents with SEN. This VR-assisted social avoidance and prosocial behaviour intervention would benefit individuals and society by cultivating psychological and socially healthy young people.
Funded Amount: HK$1.9 million
Co-PIs:
Prof. Winnie Mak (Professor, Department of Psychology, CUHK)
Dr Bryant Hui (Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Social Sciences, PolyU)
Co-Is:
Dr Jeffrey Ho (Assistant Professor, School of Design, PolyU)
Dr Richard Li (Research Assistant Professor, Department of Computing, PolyU)
Dr Rosetta Wong (Teaching Fellow, Department of Applied Social Sciences, PolyU)
Principal Investigator: Dr Angel LAI
Project Title: Healing Together: Building Positive School Mental Health in Post-COVID Hong Kong
Project Summary: The project aims to promote mental health and its awareness for stakeholders of secondary schools including students, teachers, administrative staff and management. Healing spaces will be constructed in the partnering schools. The programme will adopt a train-the-trainer approach to train students to become mental health ambassadors for programme sustainability and student empowerment.
Collaborative Partner: Baptist Oi Kwan Social Service
Funded Amount: HK$1.7 million
Online coverage:
PolyU Media Releases: https://polyu.hk/ilmgA
Oriental Daily News - https://polyu.me/3lElu94
Ming Pao Daily News - https://polyu.me/3KgY6Ja
Hong Kong Commercial Daily - https://polyu.me/3YJTEH6
Line Today - https://polyu.me/3kbBjns
