Mental health in Hong Kong: transition from hospital-based service to personalised care

Hong Kong was a UK colony before 1997 but has since been a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. It is located in southern China and has an area of 1104 km(2). Approximately 95% of Hong Kong’s population is ethnic Chinese. Hong Kong is a developed capitalist economy, with a gross domestic product of US$301.6 billion (2009 estimate), of which about 5.5% is spent on healthcare and about 0.24% on mental health (World Health Organization, 2005). Despite the relatively low level of spending on healthcare, Hong Kong nevertheless has one of the longest life expectancies in the world (79.2 years for men; 84.8 years for women) and a very low infant mortality rate (2.93 per 1000 live births) (Central Intelligence Agency, 2010).