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District Highlights 2019-20

Early Identification and Networking of Hidden and Needy Individuals and Families/ Support to Frontline Staff

  • The Wong Tai Sin and Sai Kung District Social Welfare Office (District Social Welfare Office) endeavored to strengthen collaboration and communication among local stakeholders such as social service units, local organisations, the business sector, education and medical fields, etc. to implement district collaborative projects for early identification and networking of hidden and needy individuals and families, especially carers with inadequate support, so as to encourage them to seek assistance and strengthen their supportive network.
  • The District Social Welfare Office has been actively echoing 2 three-year programmes, namely the “Dementia Friendly Community Campaign” (the Campaign) and the “Support for Carers” Project. Collaborating with the Housing Department, the District Social Welfare Office lined up 4 district elderly community centres to deliver a training talk and “Dementia Friends” Information Sessions for staff of the Housing Department in September 2019. Out of 137 attendees, 56 of them registered as “Dementia Friends”. As at April 2020, 59 sessions of “Dementia Friends” were organised in Wong Tai Sin and Sai Kung in which 1 439 local stakeholders registered as “Dementia Friends”. Under the “Support for Carers” Project, as at March 2020, 1 291 frontline staff coming from 16 property management companies in the districts received the training to enable them to identify needy elderly persons and their carers. To further strengthen the implementation and effectiveness of the Project, the District Social Welfare Office facilitated the collaboration between the 3 elderly centres of Wong Tai Sin district and the China Overseas Property Services Company Limited. Led by frontline property management staff and with assistance of volunteers from property service companies, concern visits were made to the needy elders identified on 9 September 2019 and 3 October 2019 at Upper Wong Tai Sin Estate and Choi Fai Estate respectively to bridge them up with suitable services.
  • The District Social Welfare Office has been strengthening the collaboration between Integrated Family Service Centres and the kindergartens/schools in the district for early identification and networking of hidden families and provision of timely intervention with a view to matching the needy families to preventive and supportive services through service promotion, case consultation, joint groups and programmes. The established rural supportive network by the Sai Kung Integrated Family Service Centre had expanded its support to 22 villages by enhancing the liaison with village leaders and establishing volunteers visit teams such that support could be provided to elders with impaired mobility in remote areas and appropriate service could be provided to hidden families. Regarding the promotion of the message of child protection and family harmony, the District Social Welfare Office organised over 400 groups and public education programmes in 2019-20. Besides, to convey and fulfil the concept of co-parenting and parental responsibility, a series of promotional and educational programmes were implemented on various collaborative platforms, including talks on co-parenting and visits to the co-parenting support centre for social workers and district stakeholders, use of mobile promotional vans and running of different groups and programmes held by the Family and Child Protective Service Unit and Integrated Family Service Centres, to step up publicity and public education.
  • With the concerted efforts from secondary school social work services and the youth service units, a Protocol for Student Emotion Management Programme was implemented to help the youths handle their negative feelings and emotional disturbance arising from social incidents, class suspension as well as the social distancing measures as a result of the epidemic. The Programme provided a safe space for the youths to share their views and express their emotions, and to rebuild a harmonious and accommodative school/community environment. Facing the new challenges and stresses in work places, the school personnel and frontline social workers were in need of support for management of emotions. A talk for school personnel for handling staff/students’ emotions and 4 debriefing sessions for frontline staff were thus held between September 2019 to January 2020. The talk was attended by 80 participants including principals, teachers and school social workers from 23 secondary schools and NGOs while the 4 debriefing sessions were attended by a total of 81 social workers who provided youth and family, elderly and rehabilitation services. Both the talk and the debriefing sessions were conducted by the clinical psychologists of SWD. The participants were active in sharing their feelings and exchanging views. With positive feedback from the participants, 2 more training/debriefing sessions were conducted by a private-practice clinical psychologist in January 2020 so that frontline social workers/service staff from various fields could have better understanding about the emotional needs of the public in the midst of the social incidents, the roles of social workers and their handling skills/techniques in the helping process.
  • Regarding the provision of support for children with special educational needs (SEN) and their carers, the District Social Welfare Office provided funding to the Neighbourhood Advice-Action Council (The) - Wong Tai Sin Wellness Support Centre and Haven of Hope Christian Service - Tseung Kwan O and Sai Kung District Support Centre to implement 2 district-based multi-disciplinary collaboration projects in Wong Tai Sin District and Sai Kung District between September 2018 and January 2020, with a view to identifying, helping and supporting children with SEN and their families early so as to cater for their needs to adapt to different learning/growth stages through channels such as schools and the community. Parents’ talks, parallel groups, peer support groups, parents’ groups, tea gatherings as well as mutual help groups were organised. A total of 1 133 persons including children with SEN, their parents/carers and community members benefited from the 2 projects.

Setting Up Different Collaborative Platforms to Strengthen Inter-disciplinary and Cross-sector Communication and Co-operation

  • Through the setting up of various collaborative platforms, the District Social Welfare Office engaged the stakeholders with professional knowledge and expertise and tapped resources from different sectors to strengthen the inter-disciplinary and cross-sector communication and collaboration in formulating service strategies and plans to respond to the district needs.
  • To strengthen cross-disciplinary collaboration and intelligence exchange between the medical and social welfare sectors, a new Geriatric Multi-disciplinary Platform was set up in Wong Tai Sin by the District Social Welfare Office. Regular exchanges and reviews on the collaboration among various sectors or disciplines in the provision of geriatric services were conducted. Measures to optimise the communication and collaboration between the medical and the social welfare sectors were also proposed. Besides, a new Mental Health Multi-disciplinary Platform was set up by the District Social Welfare Office for handling cases of persons having/suspected to have mental health problems to rationalise the handling approaches, referral procedures and mechanisms through regular professional exchanges.
  • The District Social Welfare Office, since October 2018, collaborated with Sik Sik Yuen and Our Lady of Maryknoll Hospital (OLMH) to organise a three-year cross-sector and inter-disciplinary district project with health management as the point of intervention. A total of 12 elderly centres in the district participated in the project. To promote multi-disciplinary participation and collaboration in the project, more than 120 young elders were trained to be “Health Ambassadors” for acquiring knowledge and skills on health management. Health Ambassadors were also arranged to conduct concern visits to households of frail elders and low-motivated elders in the district, with an aim to provide regular health surveillance and disseminate health information, thereby delaying deterioration of their functioning and enabling ageing in place. As at March 2020, more than 300 elderly households were reached through regular visits by the Health Ambassadors and the needy elders were identified and rendered follow-up services relating to health concerns, home environment and safety.
  • A Youth Service Collaborative Platform was set up in Sai Kung by the District Social Welfare Office with support from 14 youth service units in the district to apply to the District Council for funding to implement the district youth collaborative projects namely “iSeedr” and “Youth Maker” for motivating youths to understand the characteristics and needs of the district, enhancing their sense of belonging through “design thinking” training and mobilising them to use their creativity in devising ideas for building a better community. More than 500 youths, including ethnic minority students, participated in the projects. Besides, through cross-sector collaboration between social service units and hospitals in the district, a “Referral Mechanism of Health and Emotion Support Service for Adolescents” was set up in Wong Tai Sin and Sai Kung for social workers to identify and refer adolescents with emotional disturbance to receive early diagnosis/medical treatment. As at March 2020, around 150 adolescents were served.

Promotion of District Collaboration and Volunteer Service to Establish a Harmonious and Inclusive Community

  • The District Social Welfare Office is committed to promoting people from all walks of life and different sectors to join volunteering with a view to developing a caring community and enhancing the self-confidence of volunteers. To continue to promote the message of “Volunteering - Make a Difference in Life” in the district, the Sharing Session on Volunteer Service cum Volunteer Award Presentation Ceremony and Day Camp in Wong Tai Sin and Sai Kung was organised by the District Co-ordinating Committee on Promotion of Volunteer Services on 14 December 2019 at the Helping Hand Cheung Muk Tau Holiday Centre for the Elderly. Over 140 participants took part in the programme. Awards were presented to 26 individual volunteers and 5 outstanding volunteer projects. Volunteers and representatives of the 5 outstanding volunteer projects shared their fruitful volunteering experience with the participants. The Agency for Volunteer Service also provided tailor-made team building activities for the participants. Moreover, housing estates and shops were encouraged to actively care about those in need in the community, in particular the deprived groups in the district and integrate the spirit of volunteerism into daily life through participating in “Caring for Our Community” and “Community Caring Shop Recognition Scheme”. 37 shops in Wong Tai Sin and Sai Kung district were awarded the “Community Caring Shop” Logo in 2019.
  • Lining up with the Tseung Kwan O (South) Community Collaboration Network, the District Social Welfare Office conducted a “Service Promotion Day” on 9 November 2019 to promote social integration, healthy living and positive psychology as well as to introduce local resources to the needy families and residents of Tseung Kwan O (South) community. A total of 12 social services units set up booths to introduce their services and 3 videos of the award-winning episodes of the 6th “Good Persons, Good Deeds” were broadcasted for promoting mutual care and positive value in the community. About 1 200 residents participated in the programme.

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