Prof. Hector Tsang has obtained funding from Lee Hysan Foundation to support a project for promoting teachers’ wellness
We are delighted to share the good news that Prof. Hector Tsang (Cally Kwong Mei Wan Professor in Psychosocial Health, Chair Professor of Rehabilitation Sciences and Head of RS) has succeeded in acquiring funding from Lee Hysan Foundation to support a 2-year project titled “Teachers Wellness MED Program”.
Heavy teaching and administrative workloads, education reforms, preparation for peer observation or external school reviews, pursuit of further education etc have imposed a great burden on teachers that could adversely affect their physical and mental health, and consequently their work performance. On the other hand, appropriate support and help from schools and the government is limited. There is an urgent need to develop a holistic health programme to help improve teachers’ physical and mental wellbeing.
As a matter of fact, the challenges and stress that teachers face at different stages of life and career development are varied, resulting in various levels of physical and mental health problems. In view of this, Prof. Tsang and his team aim to use a life-span approach to provide holistic and sustainable care to teachers. The Teachers Wellness MED Program (with “MED” standing for “mental health, exercise, and diet”) will be tailor-made to meet teachers’ various needs at different life and career development stages. The programme is “holistic” in the sense that it embraces three aspects, namely psychosocial wellness, nutrition, and physical health. Because of the involvement of diet, Prof. Wong Man-sau, an expert in nutrition from the Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology, PolyU, has been invited to serve as a co-investigator of this project. Each of the above three aspects will involve onsite and online means, such as onsite stress management skill labs, onsite nutrition talks, onsite exercise workshops, reflective journal, nutrition knowledge booklets, exercise video clips, peer support group, online FAQ/support such as Facebook page and Instagram account, etc.
