About us

Mind HK was founded in 2016 by Dr Lucy Lord and Dr Rulin Fuong, together with the help of the doctors, nurses and patients of Central Health Medical Practice. It was launched in November 2017 and became an independent S88 charity in 2019.

Having managed a private medical group for over 30 years, Lucy and Rulin were acutely aware of how difficult it could be even for those with good medical insurance coverage to access adequate mental health care in Hong Kong. This led them to look in depth at the degree to which those experiencing mental health problems, and who cannot afford private services, could find crucial professional help and whether other forms of essential support and resources were available to them. They quickly found that most were struggling to access help and support, a situation exacerbated by the continued societal stigmatisation of those with mental illnesses. This realisation was the catalyst for Mind HK.

In 2015 Lucy contacted Mind, the UK’s oldest and most successful high-impact mental health charity, asking if they would help us to launch a similar charity in Hong Kong. In 2016, Paul Farmer, former CEO of Mind, agreed to donate their extensive written resources, so that we could localise and translate them for use in Hong Kong.

Many of the staff and several patients at Central Health worked as unpaid volunteers to launch Mind HK; we are particularly grateful to Dr. Hannah Reidy (Mind HK’s first CEO), Professor Eric Chen (Mind HK’s first co-chair and academic advisor), Carol Liang, Dr. Jill Devlin, Erica Sakyo, Odile Thiang, Anita Cheng, Dr. Zoe Fortune (City Mental Health Alliance’s first CEO).

The team at Mind in the U.K. have been incredibly supportive, providing us with expertise on their anti-stigma campaigns (“Time to Change”), and access to their academic and other NGO contacts. They also allowed us to use the name “Mind” when we launched in HK.

They introduced us to other key partners, enabling Lucy to help found the City Mental Health Alliance (CMHA) at the same time as Mind HK. CMHA tackles mental health issues in Hong Kong’s financial and business community. Mind HK continues to work closely with the CMHA as their community partner, and together have succeeded in changing the way employers in Hong Kong support mental health in the workplace.

Lucy volunteers many hours per week as the Executive Chair of Mind HK. She remains responsible, together with our Board and Advisors, for its strategic direction, community programmes and fundraising.  Lucy will be returning to the U.K. by the end of 2024. She is now working to ensure there is a smooth transition of both management and Board leadership to allow Mind HK to continue and expand on its vital work for the people of Hong Kong.