From the Jockey Club clinic to digital CBT-I: How HKBU is advancing mental wellbeing research

It started with a real-world need. In July 2023, HKBU partnered with the New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association to launch the three-year Jockey Club TCM-Driven Mental Wellness Project. The goal was to test whether a stepped-care model using Traditional Chinese Medicine could help community members before their mental health conditions worsened.

Professor Bian Zhaoxiang, Associate Vice-President (Clinical Chinese Medicine) of HKBU and Principal Investigator of the Jockey Club TCM-Driven Mental Wellness Project (1st from left), hosts a session discussing the topic “Understanding and Integrating Approaches to Depression: Perspectives from TCM and Psychiatry”.
 

To date, the project has served nearly 4,000 participants suffering from insomnia, anxiety and depression. All participants completed standardised assessments before and after treatment, and underwent clinical evaluation by Chinese medicine practitioners to objectively measure the effectiveness of the service. Results showed significant improvements across all symptom domains: depressive symptoms dropped by 26 per cent, anxiety levels fell by 22 per cent, and insomnia severity decreased by nearly 20 per cent. These results come not from a controlled laboratory setting but from real-world clinical data.

These findings were discussed at the International Forum on Chinese Medicine and Mental Wellness on 29 March 2026, a signature event celebrating HKBU's 70th anniversary this year. The message was clear: TCM can serve as a viable primary healthcare solution, aligning with the Government's broader strategy to reduce pressure on public psychiatric services.

Yet the work does not stop there. Professor Danny Yu, Assistant Professor in HKBU's School of Chinese Medicine, is taking the next logical step. His focus is on populations with limited access to clinical care—specifically, college students with eveningness tendencies, commonly known as night owls. Through funding from the Research Grants Council's Early Career Scheme, Professor Yu is investigating whether therapist-guided digital Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) and circadian interventions can prevent the worsening of depressive symptoms in this group. (Project: Prevent worsening of depressive symptoms using digital cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia and circadian intervention in college students)

In parallel, with support from the Chinese Medicine Development Fund, he is developing a TCM Sleep Health Preservation course for insomnia. This project tests whether traditional sleep health practices can be transformed into a structured, teachable, and feasible programme (Project: A Course Development and Feasibility Study of Chinese Medicine Sleep Health Preservation for Insomnia)

Taken together, the large-scale community data from the Jockey Club project and the targeted digital and preservation-focused trials led by Professor Yu demonstrate a coherent research pipeline. HKBU is building evidence from the community clinic to the digital interface, ensuring that Chinese Medicine moves forward not through rhetoric alone but through rigorous, real-world testing.