Dr Candice Powell joined Mind HK as Chief Executive Officer in September 2022. She is trained as a clinical psychologist at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Before joining Mind HK, she worked at New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association, one of Hong Kong’s largest community mental health NGOs, for 13 years. She is an honorary lecturer at The University of Hong Kong and a fellow of The Hong Kong Psychological Society, vice-chair of the Division of Clinical Psychology of HKPS, and a training officer of the Association of Contextual and Behavioural Science (Hong Kong Chapter). She is an awardee of Hong Kong Professional Elite Ladies Selection 2022.

Candice is diversely trained in evidence-based psychological intervention. Apart from being a practitioner, she is also a rigorous researcher and widely published in academic journals and presented her study findings at local and international conferences. She has developed innovative intervention programmes for improving people’s mental health and well-being. She introduced Mindful Parenting, digitised Unified Protocol for emotional disorders, and established a stepped-care psychological service in Hong Kong. She hopes everyone with emotional distress can easily access quality psychological services.

Localizing the Mindful Parenting Program for Chinese Parents in Hong Kong: A Feasibility Study and An Efficacy Study

Parental stress with ineffective coping is known to significantly impact the well-being of children and families. While most parenting programs in Hong Kong target behavioral management skills, mindful parenting uniquely addresses parental stress and reactive parenting. It supports a holistic approach to improving family well-being.

The Mindful Parenting (MP) program was culturally adapted to fit the needs of Hong Kong parents, ensuring relevance and accessibility. Facilitators underwent in-depth training sessions and ongoing supervision to ensure high-quality delivery of the program. An implementation study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the program, followed by a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to rigorously assess its efficacy.

In the implementation study, 204 parents with children aged 4-17 years were recruited from local community clinics. Post-intervention changes were evident across nine parental and child outcomes. In the RCT that followed, 163 parents were publicly recruited on the same criteria with elevated parental stress as an additional inclusion criterion. The localized MP program demonstrated efficacy in reducing parental stress and increasing parents' mindfulness, both at the general trait level and in the specific context of parenting. In particular, across the two studies, the program retention rate reached 88-93% and 67-70% of program attendees completed at least six of the eight sessions. These numbers highlight the importance of considering families’ routines when planning services for Chinese parents in Hong Kong. As accessibility is a key to parents benefiting from an efficacious intervention, additional recommendations on service delivery are discussed.