Early Identification and Intervention of Suicide Risk in Chinese Young Adults

Dr. Elsie L. C. Ong is a Lecturer in Biological Psychology, University of Northampton and a Dissertation Supervisor in UCL. She has worked in many universities in Asia and the UK for over ten years. Elsie is active in leading research that focuses in the mental health of young adults; especially those going through university transitions. Originally, she considered helping students to achieve their learning outcomes as her major goal in her teaching career, and this perspective has changed since the acquaintance of few suicide cases she came across with the students who appeared to be psychologically and physically fit. Since then, Elsie has dedicated years of work which focused exclusively on the young adults going through university transition.  Her expertise in cognitive neuroscience and psychology has also initiated further exploration on the underlying causes of suicide behavior and later sparkles potentials for suicide preventions and interventions. Elsie is devoted tothe study of suicide behavior in young adults and has published her research through internationally renowned conferences and reputed journals such as frontiers in psychiatry. These experiences have helped to keep her most up-to-date on the latest development in suicide preventions and interventions.

• Introduction.- Psychological theories and models in depicting suicidal behavior.- Existing assessment and suicide prevention programs in Hong Kong.- Potentials for using cognitive and neurological measures for characterizing suicide risk.- Conclusions and future directions.