SME Ambassadors Pilot Project Research Study

Aims: To enhance mental well-being of adults by creating a positive, happy and joyful environment in the community.

Targets: Adults aged 18-59 in Hong Kong.

Methods: SME Ambassadors Pilot Project will adopt the public health and family-focused approach, under the brand name of "Joyful@HK Campaign". Evidence-based and Evidence Generating approach with vigorous study design, both qualitative (e.g. focus groups) and quantitative (e.g. pre- and post- test), will be used to evaluate the overall programme effectiveness including follow-up of at least one month ("best science"). To ensure the practicability and sustainability of the community-based engagement project, we will engage community partners with strong track records of "best practice" to design, plan, and implement the intervention. This project will use innovative and integrated positive psychology and public health theories and methods to plan brief, simple, and cost-effective intervention.

Significance: By using "best science" in the design and evaluation of intervention programme, and the "best practice" of the partners' skills, experience and strong connection with service targets in the community, the intervention, if proven to be effective, for promoting sharing, mind and enjoyment and enhancing mental well-being can be further developed and widely disseminated to and adopted by the practitioners in the health and social service sectors for replication and improvement to benefit the whole population.

SME Ambassadors Pilot Project is one of the six Community-based Mental Wellness Project for Adolescents and Adults, which aims at enhancing mental well-being of adolescents, adults and their families by creating a positive, happy and joyful environment in the community. The Project is funded by Health Care and Promotion Fund of Food and Health Bureau.

SME Ambassadors Pilot Project is organized by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service and led by School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong(HKU). The project will organize two train-the-ambassador workshops to train 60-80 SME ambassadors on positive thinking and understanding of adult mental health problem (in particular the mixed anxiety and depressive disorder) and mental well-being.

The trained SME ambassadors will provide voluntary services and promote mental well-being messages to vulnerable groups, such as ex-mental illness people, new arrivals, etc.

The major subjects of the SME Ambassadors Pilot Project are 60-80 SME ambassadors who aged 18-59. 10-12 service providers from NGO service units (community partners) and 100-120 voluntary service recipients will also be involved in the study. Pre- and post-test evaluation will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention programme.

In the study, SME Ambassadors will be invited to complete questionnaires to measure their sharing, mind and enjoyment related behavioural indicators and invited to attend the focus group interviews to understand their experience during the programme; while community partners will be invited to attend individual interviews to collect their feedback and components on improving future community-based mental wellness programme.

Evaluation will be conducted during the programme implementation stage. The effectiveness of the intervention, as well as the level of participation and ratings for the intervention will also be evaluated.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

1) SME Ambassadors (major subjects):

* Adults who aged 18-59
* Chinese speaking
* Able to complete study questionnaires/ focus groups (2) Service recipients (which may include children/adolescents)
* Chinese speaking
* Able to complete study questionnaires/ focus groups (3) Community partners
* Service provider and participating NGO service units
* Chinese speaking
* Able to complete study questionnaires/ individual in-depth interviews

Exclusion Criteria:

* Those who cannot read Chinese
* Those who suffered from severe mental illness