OpenUp is a 24/7 crisis intervention text service targeting youth and young adults aged 15-35 in Hong Kong launched in 2018. It is funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and operated by a group of local non-governmental organisations.

Project information

• Project status: Active, launched in October 2018
• Project homepage: www.openup.hk
• Client: The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups
  • Funded by:
    • The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust
  • Other participating parties
    • Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, The University of Hong Kong
• Press release:
  • Jockey Club Online Youth Emotional Support “Open Up” Official Launch Ceremony & 2018 Hong Kong Youth Mental Health and Internet Usage Survey Release - Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, The University of Hong Kong

My roles and service

• Senior Analyst Programmer at Zensis Limited
  • Requirements engineering
  • High availability solution design for 24/7 operations
  • Project coordination with multiple external parties, including
    • Marketing agency: KymeChow
    • Telecom service sponsors
      • CSL Mobile Limited
      • SmarTone Mobile Communications Limited
  • Deployment on a major public cloud
  • Maintenance and support

Key features

• The system handled 14,400 cases, 1.4 million messages in 11 months since service launch
• Help-seekers can access the service by WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, SMS and MMS
  • A web-based chat box also available for those do not want to reveal their mobile number or Social Media accounts
  • The system tries to assign an available crisis counsellors. If all crisis counsellors are busy, the help-seeker will be put on a queue
• Helpline counsellors can handle multiple cases at the same time
• Helpline supervisors can monitor the service status on a dashboard
  • If necessary, supervisors may intervene and takeover

For help-seekers

• Help-seekers can text any opening messages to the helpline’s mobile number, Instant Messaging or Social Media account to start.
• A web-based chat box also available for those do not want to reveal their mobile number or Social Media accounts.
• The system tries to assign an available crisis counsellors. If all crisis counsellors are busy, the help-seeker will be put on a queue.
• While a help-seeker is waiting for the counsellors, a chat bot evaluates the help-seeker’s mood with a questionnaire. The help-seeker could be given priority in the queue by the system based on the evaluation results.

For crisis counsellors

• A crisis counsellors can work at different locations.
• They can help one or multiple help-seekers at the same time.
• Counsellors can stop new assignments to themselves, e.g. to take a coffee break.

For supervisors

• Supervisors can monitor the service status on the dashboard.
• They can monitor the on-going counselling conversations and if necessary, join the conversation to assist.
• They may reassign a help-seeker to a different crisis counsellors.
• They can bring a help-seeker in queue to a crisis counsellor, overriding the system behaviour).