Profile

Dr. Hilda Ho is the Head of Psychiatric Services in the Ministry of Health, Brunei Darussalam. She received her medical and specialist psychiatric training in the United Kingdom. She is a fellow of the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists.

After a period working as a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist in Scotland, she joined the Ministry of Health in Brunei in 2011. Since then, she has driven the promotion of mental health awareness and education in the public and professional arenas. Her work with the Ministry of Health and the Attorney General’s Chambers, led to the preparation and implementation of new mental health legislation in 2014. This work has been accompanied by an increased commitment to mental health in national health policies. She also led the development of Talian Harapan mental health crisis helpline in 2019.

Together with her team from Psychiatry Services and the Ministry of Health, she has developed and expanded psychiatric services in Brunei, whilst promoting community mental health awareness and understanding. She has designed and implemented policies, standards and procedures in psychiatric services in order to improve clinical governance and the quality of service delivery. She has written and published papers in peer-review journals in broad areas of psychiatry including psychiatric training, service development, substance abuse, risk assessment, suicide prevention and mental health legislation.

She has been awarded the Public Educator of the Year award from the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists for her work. She has led a team from RIPAS Hospital to win the Silver prize in the National Civil Service Excellence Awards for a project which created the first community assisted living unit for the rehabilitation of psychiatric patients. She continues to work in clinical practice while maintaining her public mental health awareness work.