Tung Wah College (TWC) is delighted to receive a total grant of HK$2.36 million from Phase 2 of the Mental Health Initiatives Funding Scheme (the Funding Scheme) coordinated by the Advisory Committee on Mental Health for the two projects led by the College’s scholars. The Funding Scheme aims to fund projects that could provide better support to the needy in the community and raise the public awareness of mental health. The funding support received by two projects demonstrates the research excellence of TWC’s scholars and commitment towards the community. 

Led by Professor Rick Kwan, Associate Dean (Programmes) of the School of Nursing, the awarded project named “Inclusive Virtual Reality and Mental Well-being in Older Adults” with a duration of 24 months, will develop three sets of immersive Virtual Reality (VR) modules with the themes of ‘Natural Scenes’, ‘Outdoor leisure’ and ‘Reminiscence’ for the older residents with physical disability living in long-term care facilities. Training will be provided to young volunteers to introduce the immersive experience of VR to the older people. It aims to improve the mental well-being and quality of life of the older people, as well as foster inter-generation integration. The VR software produced in this project will be localised, formatted in Cantonese, and will heavily draw on scenes in Hong Kong. This project will be the first of its kind to develop a therapeutic VR experience which are culturally appropriate for Hong Kong older people.

Led by Professor Alex Chan, Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities, another awarded project named “Transformative Allied Parents (TAP): A Co-creative Mental Health Peer Support Network for Parents with SEN Children” with a duration of 12 months. The project will provide training to parents with SEN children as parent ambassadors and assist them to lead a community-based peer support group for parents of SEN children. It aims to provide support to parents of children with ASD, ADD, or ADHD and improve mental well-being among the parent ambassadors and their peers.