Broke with autistic son, she thought about suicide. A charity changed their lives

Wrestling with mounting financial difficulties and the challenges of caring for a child with autism, Hong Kong mother Chau Ting-ting found herself struggling several years ago with thoughts of ending her life. The 30-year-old recalled on Thursday that her son Ziyi, now five, began displaying symptoms consistent with autism when he was two years old. Counsellors advised her to send the boy to a nursery to increase his contact with other children his age. “But when I went to the nursery, I saw Ziyi staying in a corner alone, as he was not well accepted by other children. No one came to talk to him for half an hour,” she said. Chau withdrew her son from the nursery and instead took him to therapy. The family soon faced financial difficulties, as a one-hour therapy session cost HK$1,600 (US$204). At the same time, Chau found herself fighting postnatal depression. But a doctor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) referred her to a mental health support programme backed by the Wemp Foundation, a charity founded by former New World Development CEO Adrian Cheng Chi-kong. Chau and her son are among 280 “high-risk” families with children aged six and below who have joined the Mindful Support Programme since its inception in 2023. Sixty-four per cent of the carers in these families suffered from mental health problems, while 66 per cent of these households had at least one child with special education needs. Adeline Hui Pui-shan, who runs the programme and is a social worker at the Hong Kong Council of the Church of Christ in China, said the families had also received about HK$20,000 on average in financial help. Through the foundation, Chau was able to cover the costs of Ziyi’s therapy and receive tailor-made help. “She was one of the few mothers with postnatal depression who developed suicidal thoughts. The moment she walked into my consultation room, I just knew,” said Dr Dorothy Chan Fung-ying, an honorary clinical associate professor at CUHK’s paediatrics department, who referred her to the programme. Even with the programme’s help, Chau at one point was forced to move to mainland China to save on living costs. During this time, they lived on only two meals a day – one of which was just plain congee – to reduce their spending. But the programme was able to help Ziyi to attend therapy sessions on the mainland after Hui reached out to the Wemp Foundation. “We had not tried subsidising children living on the mainland before Ziyi, but we learned that the family was facing great difficulties … and Ziyi was in a very severe condition,” the social worker said. Chau and her son were able to return to Hong Kong in September 2024, after Ziyi was allocated a place at a local special child care centre. In 2025, Chau found that Ziyi would often concentrate deeply on Chinese characters on signs, recalling that he became so focused on one occasion that he was nearly hit by a goods vehicle. While the incident triggered concerns about possible safety issues, his mother later realised his intense focus on Chinese characters could be turned into a talent, and she decided to get him some paper. “He relied on his focus, passion and memory to learn calligraphy. No one taught him. He learned all by himself,” she said. Now Ziyi’s works decorate his care centre and are even used in pamphlets for the support programme. Riding on the success of the programme, Chan of CUHK launched a pilot study to develop medium-to-long-term intervention models for the families of children with special needs. The study, which supported 20 families with 47 children over two years, consists of a series of measures, including parenting workshops, outdoor activity programmes for children, family cooking and nutrition classes, and financial management tutoring. The initiative has helped to reduce the onset of traumatic symptoms among parents by 41 per cent, while cases of depression and anxiety have fallen by 33 per cent after intervention. It has also cut behavioural problems among children by 35 per cent. If you have suicidal thoughts or know someone who is experiencing them, help is available. In Hong Kong, you can dial 18111 for the government-run Mental Health Support Hotline. You can also call +852 2896 0000 for The Samaritans or +852 2382 0000 for Suicide Prevention Services. In the US, call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. For a list of other nations’ helplines, see this page.

Broke with autistic son, she thought about suicide. A charity changed their lives

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Hong Kong mother Chau Ting-ting says she and son Ziyi struggled to keep going, but she found hope after support of Wemp Foundation-backed scheme

Hong Kong mother Chau Ting-ting says she and son Ziyi struggled to keep going, but she found hope after support of Wemp Foundation-backed scheme