Local Services
Our goal is to achieve sustainability through local services, be it through our hospital visits, health checks, or workshops.
As Hong Kong medical students, we aspire to cater to those in need within our proximity, while providing ourselves with experience-based knowledge.
Current Services
Alzheimer's Service Project
The Alzheimers’ disease service is a project launched in 2021. After visiting the Jockey Club Centre for Positive Aging (JCCPA), we realise that Alzheimer’s’ disease patients, especially those with early-onset, face greater adversities as they often face stigmatisation and receive less support. Therefore, the local team have decided to hold artwork workshops in collaboration with the JCCPA for early-onset Alzheimers’ patients. In each workshop, participants will be asked to create artworks of themes centred around their life stories, such as their occupation, their family, or even recollections of old Hong Kong. The aim of the service is to encourage them to revive and create vivid memories of their lives, as well as to allow them to express their emotions through the artwork.
Asylum Seekers & Refugees
While the exodus of refugees at volatile regions in the Middle East captivates global attention and concern, have we ever realised refugees might just be around us in our daily encounters? Currently, refugees and asylum seekers constitute a population of more than 10,000 people in Hong Kong. They are plagued with the same issues of stigmatisation and deprivation of human rights and access to resources like refugees in any part of the world; Specifically in healthcare, asylum seekers who are not yet officially registered as refugees, usually due to inefficient bureaucracy, cannot receive any government medical care. Even for registered refugees, the costs waived are just enough for routine consultations, instead of more advanced services like dental care or surgeries. Therefore, we currently work with Branches of Hope, a NGO aiming to give equal access to resources and opportunities to all vulnerable and marginalised individuals and communities in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong Society of Preventive Dentistry, to offer health talks and health checks to reassure them of their health statuses. We also aim to help refugees to recognise the healthcare resources they are entitled to and how to access them. A donation drive was also held in CUHK during May to collect daily necessities for the refugees living in Hong Kong.
Domestic Helper Service
In Hong Kong, healthcare access of domestic helpers should be covered by their employer. However, employers might be unwilling to provide extensive financial support for domestic helpers to conduct health checks and/or doctor consultations, while domestic helpers themselves may avoid seeking for help as well, in fear of causing inconvenience. Therefore, this project aims to improve their accessibility to health knowledge and service. From attending our talks and health checks, domestic helpers will improve their own health and wellbeing, as well as spread the knowledge to their family relatives.
This year, we’ve successfully organised two visits to the TCK Learning Centre with the theme of women’s health and eye health in June and July respectively. During our visits, we conducted health checkups (i.e. measuring blood glucose, blood pressure and BMI) to monitor and assess the helpers’ overall health and well-being. Besides, we organised informative health talks featuring experienced doctors such as Dr Kendrick Shih and Dr Heather Lam), who shared their expertise with the audience.
Homeless Service Trips
Co-launched by MO and the Salvation Army in early 2017, this project offers the opportunity to visit and provide health education with the homeless in the central Kowloon district. In the past year, in partnership with Impact HK, we organised a series of monthly kindness walks from March to June. These walks took place in various districts of Hong Kong, namely Yau Ma Tei, Tin Hau, Tsim Sha Tsui, and Tai Kok Tsui. During these walks, our team distributed essential health supplies and conducted simple health checks. By engaging directly with the community, we aimed to promote better health awareness and provide immediate support to those in need. Additionally, we joined forces with the Salvation Army to host a comprehensive health program. This collaboration involved conducting health checks and delivering a health talk at their centre. Specifically, we focused on raising awareness about heat-related diseases and skin health. To ensure the highest level of expertise, the enlightening skin health talk was delivered by the esteemed Dr. Terence Kwong. Through these collaborative endeavours, we strive to empower individuals with knowledge, enhance their overall well-being, and foster a stronger sense of community health and support.
Grantham Hospital Service
Since 2010, Medical Outreachers Hong Kong has been collaborating with Grantham Hospital’s Hospice Center to provide palliative service opportunities for medical students. This service project aims to add joy and happiness to the lives of these terminally ill patients, and to accompany them at the end stages of their life journeys. In this programme, participants are provided with unique opportunities to learn and practice their communication skills with terminal patients– a type of clinical exposure that preclinical medical students rarely get. During the COVID pandemic, this service was suspended due to Hospital Authority’s guidelines. However, in 2023, we were able to resume the hospital visits. Following the visits, a reflective Life and Death Workshop was held, facilitated by experienced doctors in this field. By discussing and sharing their visit experiences, students had the opportunity to reflect and learn the appropriate approaches and attitudes to adopt as future doctors.
SEN Service
In collaboration with Learning Bridge, we aim to bridge the gap between SEN and medical students. This project allows medical students to learn how to communicate patiently with neurodivergent SEN students and encourages them to be more attuned to the emotional needs of SEN students.
Moreover, for SEN students, we hope to provide non-verbal means for them to express themselves, with sensory-rich experiences such as artwork creation and collaborative games. Through this, we also hope to enhance their collaboration and communication skills and, at the same time increase their medical knowledge.
