On 12 April 2024, HKUST's Center for Aging Science and Division of Public Policy successfully organized a one-day conference titled "Challenges and Opportunities for Promoting Mental Health and Well-being for Elderly" at the Kaisa Group Lecture Theater in the Jockey Club Institute of Advanced Study of HKUST. The conference attracted many prominent experts and representatives from academic, governmental and non-governmental organizations. Speakers and panelists discussed challenges facing Hong Kong's aging population and research efforts by HKUST and others to overcome them.
We were honored to have Prof. Nancy Ip, President of HKUST, Dr. the Hon. Lam Ching-choi, the Chief Executive Officer of Haven of Hope Christian Service (HOHCS) and Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Mental Health (ACMH) of HKSAR Government, and Mr. Bryan Wong, Head of Charities (Ageing and Elderly Care) of The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) open the conference.
In her opening remarks, Prof. Nancy Ip emphasized HKUST's commitment to aging research and introduced the four themes of the conference. She highlighted the importance of support, care and commitment in aging research and described the role HKUST's proposed establishment of a medical school would play in remedying and alleviating diseases of aging. Dr. Lam Ching-choi highlighted the public's increasing awareness of mental health issues among the elderly and of elderly diseases, such as dementia. He also described the 4Rs – Rest, Relaxation, Relationship and Resilience – as key factors ensuring healthy lifestyles for the elderly and the younger generation. Mr. Bryan Wong echoed the need for massive population screening of dementia. He stressed the importance of medical service providers, community organizations, and academics joining hands to alleviate these challenges.
Prof. Stuart Gietel-Basten, Associate Director of the Center for Aging Science at HKUST, set the tone and context for the conference by surveying population trends and issues facing Hong Kong's elderly. He emphasized that aging is an intergenerational challenge and that moving forward the boundaries between health care and social care would be increasingly blurred. Adoption of innovative technology in an increasingly more digitally literate elderly population may reduce the dependency rate and improve elderly well-being following a holistic and human-centered approach.
Prof. Naubahar Sharif, Acting Head and Professor of the Division of Public Policy at HKUST, shared the results and findings of his project funded by the Center for Aging Science. His team launched the Hong Kong Elderly Well-being Survey (HKEWS), a territory-wide study investigating how diversity, well-being, Covid-19 and elderly care differ across Chinese and ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. Key findings of the survey revealed barriers to care in ethnic minority communities, including societal and cultural views, limited access to information and language barriers, arguing for a more culturally sensitive approach to addressing mental health issues in the elderly from these communities.
In the panel discussion, Dr. Lam Ching-choi raised the issue of how technology, especially AI, could be embedded into elderly service care and how society could help the left-behind elderly. Mr. Chua Hoi-wai, Chief Executive of The Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKCSS), compared two housing projects by the Hong Kong Housing Authority and the Hong Kong Housing Society, suggesting that co-location of living and recreational facilities together could provide a more holistic approach to elderly care. Prof. Sharif commented on the recent gerontechnology development and summarized two crucial points: the unintended consequences of technology and the long-term impact of it. Prof. Gietel-Basten concluded that a friendly society should not only focus on creating advanced at-home tools but also infrastructure at communities.
Prof. Melody Chao, Associate Professor of the Department of Management at HKUST, described her study exploring the effectiveness of writing interventions in improving self-regulation and working memory capacity and reducing depression, anxiety and stress. Prof. Chao collaborated with Saint Francis University (formerly the Caritas Institute of Higher Education) and The Hong Kong Society for the Aged (SAGE) in data collection. She found that guided writing interventions can reduce emotional distress and promote positive outcomes by fostering cognitive change through facilitating emotional expression, developing flexibility, and bringing in fresh perspectives. Interestingly, the most effective writing interventions depended upon the individual characteristics of the elderly.
In the panel discussion, Prof. Naubahar Sharif raised the problem of loneliness and asked whether there were any cultural differences in response to this and the psychological interventions. Dr. Tong Bing-chung, Vice-Chairman of SAGE, believes that the Chinese elderly are more family-oriented and more concerned about the relatedness rather than autonomy, compared to the elderly in the west. This may lead to increased loneliness. Ms. Queenie Man, Founder and CEO of The Project Futurus, said the young-old, old-old and oldest-old groups had different perspectives on their relationships and well-beings. For instance, the older segment puts more emphasis on collectivism and family relationships whilst the young-old segment prefers more autonomy. Therefore, as an operator of elderly home, she shifted away from the conventional operator-driven model toward a resident empowered model, employing different tactics to serve the needs of different elderly segments.
Prof. Bert Shi, Director of Center for Aging Science at HKUST, introduced three research projects for multi-locational care of elderly, which were supported by the Center. In the home, the "EarSpiro: Earphone-based Full Spirometry for Lung Function Assessment" project led by Prof. Qian Zhang (Acting Head of the Division of Integrative Systems and Design at HKUST) developed a handy earphone device for monitoring and recovery of respiratory function. Relating to community, Prof. Ge Lin Kan (Head of the Thrust of Urban Governance and Design at HKUST (Guangzhou)) used virtual reality combined with a stationary bike to enable elderlies at nursing homes with limited mobility to expand their life space mobility by virtually traveling back to their old neighborhoods. Increases in life space mobility help to slow the rate of cognitive decline. Related to health care facilities, Prof. Shi described his project titled "Humanoid Robotic Healthcare Assistant". In collaboration with Haven of Hope Hospital, his team is conducting practical testing for deploying humanoid robots for patient interviews/assessments and other repetitive tasks, enabling doctors and nurses to focus their attention on their most important and effective tasks.
In the panel discussion, the panelists shared about the latest technology available to elderly people. Dr. Donna Brown, Associate Director of Institute for Translational Research of Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), outlined the gerontechnology adoption and ongoing technology development at HKSTP including vital sign monitoring, fall detection and disease screening. Ms. Stephanie Law, Managing Director of Forward Living, shared how their senior community incorporated technology to provide a safe and comfortable living environment, especially for elderly with chronic diseases such as dementia. Examples of gerontechnology included anti-wandering systems, fall management and bed exit systems. The panelists discussed how individuals and institutions could support the transition from traditional operational models toward technologically enhanced approaches to elderly care. Ms. Law added that the current older generations were more receptive to technology. The accelerating development of gerontechnology will benefit the elderly population in many ways.
Prof. Amy Fu, Research Professor of the Division of Life Science and Associate Director of the Molecular Neuroscience Center at HKUST, shared HKUST's latest findings on understanding and detecting biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an incurable brain disorder, which is the most common cause of dementia, affecting millions of populations worldwide. The team has developed a multi-protein blood test for early detection of AD with high accuracy across ethnic groups. Early detection allows for appropriate management, treatment and planning of AD and dementia. The AD blood testing technology also enables multi-dimensional analysis of AD status. This service being made available via a start-up in Hong Kong. The blood test is not only limited to AD diagnosis, but also helps to identify drug development opportunities and measure efficacy.
In the panel discussion, Dr. Edmund Sha, Head of the Division of Geriatric Medicine of United Christian Hospital, said the availability of AD treatments in Hong Kong is still very limited. Therefore, early detection allows patients to get better prepared for future medical or legal issues while they are still mentally sound. Ms. Janette Tam, Senior Occupational Therapist from Haven of Hope Christian Service, congratulated Prof. Fu and the team on their developments, which she felt will have very significant impact, both clinically and socially. She emphasized the importance of releasing risk scores, rather than binary detection results. The panel emphasized the importance of collaboration between researchers and clinicians.
After a full day of discussions, Prof. Tim Cheng, Vice-President for Research and Development of HKUST, expressed his satisfaction with the outcomes of the conference. He re-iterated HKUST's commitment to leveraging our expertise and resources to address significant aging challenges through the formation of interdisciplinary research teams backed by financial resources to support innovative projects. Prof. Bert Shi concluded the conference by highlighting the key points that emerged during the speeches and fruitful panel discussions. The conference was part of the Center's effort to facilitate and strengthened partnerships between HKUST researchers and various community collaborators. He ended by expressing his sincere gratitude towards all special guests, keynote speakers, panelists and audience for their attendance and support.
Click here to view the photo album of the conference.