Engagement
Stakeholder Engagement
Stakeholders' Views Gathered at Walk with Kids@Healthy Happy FUNday
Stakeholders' Views Gathered at Walk with Kids@Healthy Happy FUNday
- On physical health
- Children consumed more junk food and unhealthy snacks without much physical exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic, which intensified the problems of obesity and exercise intolerance.
- Children engaged in more sedentary activities and spent several hours a day on electronic devices and cell phones, resulting in addiction to games and online activities, as well as poor sleep hygiene and problematic sleep duration and pattern. The overuse of electronic devices and the lack of outdoor activities also worsened the myopia and other visual health problems of children.
- Regarding eating habits, some children do not like eating fruit much.
- On mental health
- Some children experienced learning difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic and after the class resumption. Some also found it hard to cope with the increased academic pressure and homework load when schooling resumed.
- Some children faced pressure when getting along with their peers due to talking too much, lack of concentration, conduct problems, etc.
- Competitions in school could cause strong negative emotions among children and some will even harm themselves.
- The negative emotions of many children have an intertwining impact on their live-in siblings and classmates which further deteriorates the situation.
- A participating child, who had faced bullying at school after being promoted to secondary school, had considerable stress, loss of motivation to study, increased indulgence in screen activity and escalating parent-youth conflicts.
- On physical health
- Parents/carers usually have a regular pattern of work and rest, except for holidays, as they have to fit in with the school timetable of their children. They generally do not have a habit of physical exercises regularly.
- The sleeping time of fathers (5 to 6 hours a day on average) is relatively less than those of mothers (7 to 8 hours a day) and children (8 to 9 hours a day), while they could normally have more sleep (about 10 hours or more) on Sundays or non-school days.
- Fathers usually opt for sports activities such as hiking and ball games while mothers prefer shopping during their leisure time.
- Regarding eating habits, 50% of the mothers would cook at home (including lunch and dinner) while the remaining half would buy takeaways or dine out.
- On mental health
- Some parents/carers, especially those having children with special educational need or other mental health issues, faced extreme stress in dealing with the emotional problems of children and supporting their online learning, which increased the risks of conflicts among family members and unnecessary corporal punishment;
- Parents' stress was mainly associated with children’s academic results and learning in school. Other causes may originate from people and relatives who did not understand their children’s abilities and relationship with peers, slow eating of the child, etc.
- Mothers usually have less private time and entertainment as they have to take care of their children and families all the time.
- Children seldom talk much about their school life with their parents although the latter generally care about their learning in school.
- Some parents valued the quality of time spent with their family members, while some found it difficult to spare time for family gatherings/activities, particularly those fathers who are engaged in service industries with long and inflexible working hours. In addition, a lot of time has to be spent on supervising and coaching their children to do homework or revision.
- Some families do not have an intimate relationship and have generation gap between family members.
- Families of ethnic minority seldom take their children out to have fun.
- Schools focus more on the academic results and examination of students after school resumption. Sufficient learning and emotional support should be provided to children with special educational need/learning difficulties and the vulnerable ones in this regard.
- More resources should be allocated to enhance teachers’ skills in dealing with students with special educational need and identifying children who have emotional problems to facilitate early referrals for appropriate services.
- More tuition classes in secondary schools should be provided since parents are at a loss to identify the relevant resources for their children.
- Some parents would proactively seek help from social workers when their children have problems. Reinforced support for social workers who are overloaded in general was recommended so that they could pay more attention to those children in need.
- Ways should be explored to shorten the waiting time for the psychiatric services and on-site rehabilitation services so as to provide timely assistance to the families of children with emotional problems.
- Service quotas of the relevant services provided by non-governmental organisations should be expanded so that children could receive services in their local districts.
- General support for parents of children with special learning needs should be reinforced.
- More information on the provision of extra-curricular activities by youth centres and other uniformed groups should be made available to parents.
- Relevant supporting services (including language support with cultural sensitivity) for parents/carers of the ethnic minority groups should be strengthened to facilitate them to seek help or support when facing difficulties such as parenting stress, supervision of their children to do homework due to language incompetence, domestic abuse, etc.
- More resources should be allocated for initiating proactive intervention to help combat inter-generation poverty and enable families to better cultivate their children’s knowledge, ability, self-confidence, etc.
- Participating parents/carers highly appreciated the efforts of organisers in arranging the engagement event which helped enhance parent-child interaction and relationship. They were particularly grateful for the warm hospitality and dedicated care of their children by the volunteers. They hoped more similar activities could be organised in the future.
- The participating families welcomed the chance to experience the fun of experiential/adventurous activities in such a special location, making their family day enjoyable and memorable.
- Parents were surprised to see the changes in their children from the beginning to the end of the event: from being shy at the beginning to becoming more active to participate in games and mingle with other children. They also appreciated the encouragement and support of the volunteers for their children to try out challenging games which helped build their confidence.
- Children enjoyed the dynamic activities arranged by the organisers, particularly Frisbee Fun and High Flying Fun. They were also happy to know more about the work of the Hong Kong Police Force through a series of onsite facilities/equipment (e.g. Police Museum, up-close police car showcase, etc.) and getting along with the police officers who served as the volunteers in the engagement event.
- More food choices with smaller portions were suggested to cater for the needs of different children.