NCT04811170

Counselling Service for Low-income EM in Hong Kong

Status unknown NA Last updated 26 May 2022

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Counselling in Depression, Anxiety in 120 participants. Status unknown.

Timeline

22 March 2021

Primary endpoint
31 January 2023

31 July 2023

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	The University of Hong Kong
Phase	NA
Status	Status unknown
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	none
Primary purpose	treatment
Enrollment	120
Start date	22 March 2021
Primary completion	31 January 2023
Estimated completion	31 July 2023
Sites	1 location across Hong Kong

Drugs / interventions tested

• Counselling

Conditions studied

• Depression, Anxiety — all drugs for Depression, Anxiety →

Sponsor

The University of Hong Kong

Who can join

Adults 15 to 64, any sex, with Depression, Anxiety. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

This study will recruit 120 ethnic minorities in Hong Kong from the Zubin Foundation (TZF) at the Ethnic Minority Well-being Centre (EMWBC), which is a service provider of EM mental health support in Hong Kong. This service provides counselling service and referrals to HA via the Integrated Community Centre for Mental Wellness (ICCMW) to psychiatrists. The service covers the South Asians population of approximately eighty-four thousands people in Hong Kong. Participants will be recruited by the Zubin Foundation through outreach activities screening and counselling will be conducted in partnering schools and NGOs (e.g., Yan Oi Tong in Tuen Mun and Yew Chung College of Early Childhood Education in Aberdeen).

The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of counselling service for improving mood symptoms in EM, also to assess the effectiveness of counselling service in improving psychological functioning (i.e. resilience and rumination, self-compassion, self-efficacy and life satisfaction), social functioning and quality of life and to assess whether the counselling service is cost-effective and offers good value for money.

The study is a wait-list RCT. Participants will be randomly assigned into either the intervention group (n = 60) or the wait-list control group (n = 60) in a 1:1 ratio. Each participant in the intervention group will be paired up with a participant from the control group, the number of sessions and duration of waiting period varies depending on the severity of mood symptoms. Participants with mild to moderate mood symptoms will receive a maximum of 6 counselling sessions and will be assessed at baseline (T0, W1), at post

-treatment for counselling group (T1, W8), and after 2 booster sessions. Participants in the waiting list control group will receive the same counselling service after the counselling group completed the intervention. Participants with severe mood symptoms will receive a maximum of 10 counselling sessions and will be assessed at baseline (T0, W1), at post-treatment for counselling group (T1, W12), and after 2 booster sessions. Participants in the waiting list control group will receive the same counselling service after the counselling group completed the intervention.

This evaluation study will provide data to inform the government in mental health policy review and development.

Publications & conference data

1 peer-reviewed publication reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):

1. Effects of a culturally adapted counselling service for low-income ethnic minorities experiencing mental distress: a pragmatic randomised clinical trial.
   Suen YN, Chen EYH, Wong YC, Ng W, et al · · 2023 · cited 1× · PMID 37597877 · DOI 10.1136/bmjment-2023-300788