UQ graduates unite to help people in Hong Kong recover from the social trauma brought about by COVID-19

Prof. David Shum (middle, PhD in Psychology, 1992) is the principal investigator leading the project team, with Dr Judy Y.M. Siu (left, PhD in Population Health, 2008) and Dr Yuan Cao (PhD in Psychology, Master of Clinical Psychology, 2018) as co-investigators.

Three UQ graduates living and working in Hong Kong—Prof. David H.K. Shum (PhD in Psychology, 1992), Dr Yuan Cao (PhD in Psychology, Master of Clinical Psychology, 2018), and Dr Judy Y. M. Siu (PhD in Population Health, 2008)—have formed a research team recently to help the local community recover from the social trauma brought about by COVID-19.

Their project titled “Psychological trauma and unsafe behaviour during the COVID-19 epidemic: A mixed-method study of people’s emotion, knowledge, attitude and behaviour” has just been awarded a grant of HK$1,408,810 (~AUD280,000) from the Health and Medical Research Fund by the Food and Health Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong SAR for commissioned research on the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19.

With a mixed-method design of survey and interviews, the team will investigate the psychological trauma of people in Hong Kong during the COVID-19 outbreak, their level of knowledge and attitudes about COVID-19, their behaviours regarding infection prevention, and the barriers for people in Hong Kong to undertake preventive health behaviours.

The three alumni are all based at constituent departments of or at the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prof. David H.K. Shum is the Dean of the Faculty and the Chair Professor of Neuropsychology at the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Dr Yuan Cao is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Faculty, and Dr Judy Y. M. Siu is an Associate Professor at the Department of Applied Social Sciences.