Committee on the Promotion of Racial Harmony:

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• Committee on the Promotion of Racial Harmony
• notes of meeting on 15 September 2006
• Appendix

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Study on Drug Abuse Situation among Ethnic
Minorities in Hong Kong
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Research Team Kwong-leung Tang Hung
Wong Chau-kiu Cheung (Department of Social
Work The Chinese University of Hong Kong) 

• In Collaboration with Unison Hong Kong

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Objectives

• To identify profiles, trends, behaviors, and
  characteristics of drug abusers who are ethnic
  minorities in Hong Kong, with special emphasis on
  high risk behaviors such as needle sharing
• To identify the social consequences associated
  with their drug abuse, including its relationship
  with family and involvement in criminal
  activities
• To examine the barriers for them to receive
  services such as language barrier,
  discrimination, and stigma experienced and
• To assess the service needs of these abusers

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Research methods

• Conceptual framework
• Literature review
• Questionnaire survey of 100 ethnic minority drug
  abusers (recruited by referral and snowballing)
• Focus groups / in-depth interviews with 19
  service providers and allied professionals, 15
  ethnic minority drug abusers and 7 ethic minority
  non-drug abusers

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Ethnicity
Socio-Economic characteristics of survey
respondents
Non-South Asian (24)
South Asian (76)
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Age and sex
Socio-Economic characteristics of survey
respondents


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Socio-Economic characteristics of survey
respondents

• About two-thirds of the responded abusers could
  speak English and 28 could speak Chinese.
• About half (52) of them were unemployed.
• On average, they had stayed in Hong Kong for 19
  years.
• 61 were not married.
• 48 of them had previous conviction records.

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Type of Drugs ever Abused
Drug abuse patterns

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Drug abuse patterns

• Needle sharing occurring in 14.0 of ethnic
  minorities, with an average of 2.2 times per
  week.
• About half of the responded abusers experienced
  approaches by drug dealers in the street, malls
  or parks.
• The majority of them used services of the
  methadone clinic currently (72). The proportion
  of using services provided by NGOs was relatively
  small.

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Use of services
Proportion of respondents who had used drug
rehabilitation services in the past six months

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Situation of ethnic-minority drug abusers

• Responded ethnic minority drug abusers
  encountered more or less similar problems as
  their local counterparts. For example,
  relationship problems with family members,
  difficulties in job seeking.
• Having trouble with family occurred more often
  among respondents with more frequent drug abuse.
• Problems such as committing crimes, sharing
  needles and having conflicts with family were
  more common among respondents who ever
  encountered approaches by drug dealers.
• Focus groups subjects indicated that they were
  facing social integration and language problems,
  like their ethnic minority peers.

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Average scores on social integration and racial
discrimination (0-100)
Social integration and racial discrimination
More social integration
More racial discrimination
Average
Average
Less social integration
Less racial discrimination
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Average score on service desire (0-100)
Service needs
More desirable
Average
Less desirable
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Recommended service model

• Enhancing preventive education for ethnic
  minority students
• targeting at schools with significant number of
  ethnic-minority students
• Enhancing drug education and knowledge on drug
  harmful effects
• discouraging initial trial of cough syrup and
  marijuana
• facilitating collaborative efforts by teachers
  and social workers.

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Recommended service model

• Outreaching and referral services for
  ethnic-minority drug abusers
• providing necessary language trainings to social
  workers or recruiting suitable ethnic-minority as
  peer counsellors
• engaging ethnic-minority drug abusers in
  rehabilitation services and preventing risky
  behaviours
• obtaining cooperation of parents of
  ethnic-minority abusers
• combating drug dealers
• decreasing influence of deviant peers
• preventing needle sharing.

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Recommended service model

• Community-based centres for ethnic minority
  youth, particularly drug abusers and ex-drug
  abusers
• providing Chinese language training to young
  ethnic-minority drug abusers
• using peer or co-ethnic interventions
• engaging ethnic-minority drug abusers in
  residential, employment, referral and aftercare
  services
• engaging ethnic-minority drug abusers in healthy
  activities.

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Thank you!