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The Zubin Foundation’s Ethnic Minority Well-being Centre offers free counselling services for ethnic minorities to talk to a professional about their struggles
STUDIES HAVE SHOWN that stress levels, prevalence of anxiety, and symptoms of depression in the Hong Kong population have increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. The unprecedented rise of cases in the past few months have further taken their toll on people’s mental health.
The Zubin Foundation’s Ethnic Minority Well-being Centre
To support the mental health of ethnic minority communities in the city, The Zubin Foundation’s Ethnic Minority Well-being Centre offers free-of-charge counselling services to South Asian and Southeast Asian adults from low-income families. Counselling is provided by qualified counsellors who speak English, Hindi, Urdu and Nepali.
Counselling provides a safe space to explore your feelings, an opportunity to talk about anything without having to worry about being judged
Understanding more about counselling – how can it help?
Counselling is a unique opportunity to talk to a trained professional about any difficult feelings that you might be experiencing. Counselling provides a safe space for you to explore your feelings, an opportunity to talk about anything without having to worry about being judged.
Your counsellor will help you understand the situation and analyse your thoughts, emotions and behaviours, challenge any unhealthy patterns and help you find effective ways to handle various issues.
Through the process, you are equipped with coping skills that help you deal with similar situations on your own in the future.
“Counselling is for them, not for me.”
There is much stigma around counselling. Some people think that others may say this about them if they seek counselling:
- “Their condition must be very severe”
- “They are weak”
- “They are just seeking attention”
And so on. But actually, none of this is true. In fact, anyone may decide to go for counselling – it is simply a chance to talk to someone privately about your situation or your feelings.
You may be facing a major life issue or trauma, but likewise, you may also just be bothered by issues in your daily life, such as family or relationship conflicts, work, studies, etc.
You do not have to be suicidal or extremely depressed or anxious to seek help. In fact, appropriate help at the right time will help in reducing the severity of the situation and your reaction to it.
Appropriate help at the right time will help to reduce the severity of the situation and your reaction to it
Signs that you may need counselling:
- Feeling down or depressed
- Frequent crying or outbursts or anger
- Not able to enjoy the things you used to
- Lack of confidence or low self esteem
- Constantly worrying about certain things
- Feeling tense or anxious
- Excessive fear about a particular thing, such as being in public or closed places
- Fear of panicking or losing control
- Hand tremors
- Difficulty breathing or feeling of own heart beat, even without any physical exertion
- Feeling of being overwhelmed
- Irregular or disturbed sleep
- Feelings of worthlessness, thoughts of self-harm or suicide
- Abnormal eating patterns
- Increased consumption of alcohol or use of addictive substances
The Zubin Foundation is a non-profit organisation that strives to improve the lives of ethnic
minorities in Hong Kong by reducing suffering and providing opportunities.
Aside from counselling services, the Ethnic Minority Well-being Centre also offers free one-to-one check-up services and awareness talks to help ethnic minority individuals to understand their state of well-being.
The Zubin Foundation also runs the Call Mira Helpline, Care Box giving campaign and other projects to support the ethnic minority community.
For more information on counselling services, visit zubinfoundation.org/wellbeing
For free well-being check-up service, visit http://tiny.cc/zptnuz
Please note: The Zubin Foundation does not provide services to migrant domestic workers due to limited resources; please refer to our Help & Support section for details of similar services catering to the migrant domestic worker community.
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