KE Spotlight - Community Engagement - HKU Knowledge Exchange

Going through grief

The nuclear families, longer life spans and breakdown of community that characterise modern living mean that more and more people are alone in bereavement. Dr Amy Chow of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration has been developing interventions to help people navigate the tides of grief.

Proposed solution to better retirement

Professor Nelson Wing-Sun Chow of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration talks about his study on the future development of retirement security in Hong Kong and the questions that need to be discussed by the government and the general public.

Launch of "JC A-Connect: Jockey Club Autism Support Network"

The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust has earmarked HK$167 million for a three-year programme to provide better support for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), their families and schools. The HKU Faculty of Social Sciences, the Education Bureau and six NGOs will collaborate in this programme, commencing in the 2015/16 academic year. Coaching programmes, teacher training and research will be conducted to improve the social communication, emotional regulation and learning strategies of the students to help with behavioral problems and enhance their overall learning ability and social skills. The evidence-based programme will place emphasis on the partnership of families and schools, which aims to enhance skills of teachers and parents competency in handling these cases and provide students with prompt and appropriate intervention, according to Dr Irene Ho and Dr Sandra Tsang of the HKU Faculty of Social Sciences.

HKU Youth Quitline marks its tenth anniversary in helping young smokers

The youth-oriented smoking cessation hotline "Youth Quitline", jointly established by the Smoking Cessation Research Team at the HKU Faculty of Medicine, the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, and the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health has since 2005 received over 7,000 telephone inquiries, provided smoking cessation counselling for 1,591 youth smokers. As of January 31, 2015, the smoking cessation rate after joining the programme for six months was 23.6%.

Knowledge Exchange Awards 2014

The Faculty Knowledge Exchange (KE) Awards were introduced in 2011 in order to recognize each Faculty's outstanding KE accomplishment that has made demonstrable economic, social or cultural impacts to benefit the community, business/industry, or partner organizations. Following the successful launch of the Faculty KE Awards, the KE Award (Non-Faculty Unit) was introduced in 2012 with the same objective for the independent centres, institutes and units of the University. Results of the 2014 KE Awards are now available.

HKU Geography Chair Professor Jim Chi-yung receives LC Chadwick Award 2014 for Arboricultural Research

HKU Geography Chair Professor Jim Chi-yung has been awarded the LC Chadwick Award for Arboricultural Research by the International Society of Arboriculture. He is the first Asian winner of the highest honour in the field of arboriculture. Apart from his academic impact, he is one of the pioneer academics to bridge town and gown by transferring research-based knowledge to the community for direct adoption and application. Recently, he has successfully convinced the government to set up a tree management office and a landscape planning office at a high-level policy branch, providing for the first time a professional arborist grade in the civil service establishment.

International Conference on Grief and Bereavement in Contemporary Society (ICGB) held at HKU

Over 1,000 scholars, health professionals and experts took part in the tri-annual conference, which was held in Asia for the first time. Over 250 papers and reports were presented during the four-day conference and 20 professional training workshops were held to enhance the skills of healthcare professional and practitioners. According to a study conducted by the HKU Faculty of Social Sciences, death avoidance score of Hong Kong adults aged under 59 (which ranged from 1 to 7 with higher scores indicating greater fear) had reduced significantly from 4.23 in 2007 to 2.2 in 2014, which reflected the general public's attitude towards death had become much more open.