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Highlights of the Year 2019-20

Community Support Services for the Elderly

  • Dementia Community Support Scheme
    The Health Bureau (formerly the Food and Health Bureau), in collaboration with the Hospital Authority (HA) and the Social Welfare Department (SWD), launched a two-year pilot scheme named “Dementia Community Support Scheme” in February 2017 to provide appropriate support services for elderly persons with mild or moderate dementia in the community through a medical-social collaboration model. The Government has regularised the pilot scheme since February 2019, and expanded it to all 41 District Elderly Community Centres (DECCs) and 7 HA clusters in the territory since May 2019. It is estimated that over 2 000 elderly persons will receive the services each year.
  • Dementia Friendly Community Campaign
    In September 2018, SWD launched a three-year Dementia Friendly Community Campaign with the aim of promoting public awareness on dementia in Hong Kong. A series of programmes under the Campaign include broadcasting Announcements in the Public Interest on television and radio, developing a thematic webpage, commissioning the Hong Kong Alzheimer’s Disease Association to organise internationally recognised “Dementia Friends” Information Sessions, producing television episodes on dementia as well as organising a major highlight event, movie screenings and related district activities. The goal is to build a dementia friendly community for persons with dementia and their carers.
  • Support for Carers Project
    To strengthen support for needy elderly persons and their carers and encourage community participation, SWD launched a three-year “Support for Carers Project” in October 2018 and invited property management companies to join. The Project aims to provide basic training to frontline property management personnel, so as to equip them with knowledge on how to identify and assist needy elderly persons and carers. They are also provided with information on welfare services in the community, so that they may make use of the community resources when necessary to support ageing in place for elderly persons.
  • Pilot Scheme on Training for Foreign Domestic Helpers in Elderly Care
    SWD, in collaboration with the Department of Health (DH) and 6 DECCs in 3 districts, launched an 18-month Pilot Scheme on Training for Foreign Domestic Helpers in Elderly Care in March 2018 with a view to improving the basic knowledge and strengthening the skills of foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) in taking care of frail elderly persons, so as to enhance elderly persons’ quality of life in the community and support ageing in place. The training, providing a total of 300 free training places, covers common care skills for the elderly and electives on caring for elderly persons with dementia and stroke. DECCs also arrange care services or activities for needy elderly persons when the training is being conducted. The training courses under the first phase of the Pilot Scheme were completed in May 2019. A total of 375 FDHs were recruited and 344 of them completed all core courses under the Pilot Scheme. In view of the positive feedback, SWD received an additional allocation from the Lotteries Fund in July 2019 and extended the Pilot Scheme to December 2020, covering 7 districts and providing an additional 950 training places in total.
  • Pilot Scheme on Living Allowance for Carers of Elderly Persons From Low Income Families
    The Government launched the Pilot Scheme on Living Allowance for Carers of Elderly Persons from Low Income Families in June 2014 and commenced its Phase III in October 2018. The purpose of the Pilot Scheme is to provide carers of elderly persons from low income families with a living allowance to help supplement their living expenses, so that the elderly persons in need of long term care can, with the assistance of their carers, receive proper care and continue to age in place in a familiar community. The total number of beneficiaries under the 3 phases of the Pilot Scheme is 6 000.
  • Prevention and Handling of Elder Abuse
    In 2001, SWD set up a multi-disciplinary Working Group on Elder Abuse (WGEA) to examine jointly the phenomenon of elder abuse in Hong Kong and advise on strategies and ways of handling elder abuse. The WGEA has been focusing on enhancing community awareness on elder abuse, including the awareness of frontline professionals of relevant disciplines. Upon establishment of the service infrastructure, the work focus has evolved from a remedial-oriented approach to a more preventive approach such as identifying risk factors of elder abuse cases and formulating preventive measures; and SWD’s major foci include providing support to carers of frail elderly persons. In 2019-20, SWD updated the “Procedural Guidelines for Handling Elder Abuse Cases” in order to facilitate relevant government departments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in handling elder abuse cases.
  • Opportunities for the Elderly Project
    Under the Opportunities for the Elderly Project, subsidies are provided to social service organisations, district organisations and educational institutes, etc. to organise a wide range of programmes, such as promoting life-long learning, community participation, inter-generational solidarity and volunteerism, etc. to promote a sense of worthiness among elderly persons and to instill a caring spirit in the community. Since 2019-20, an additional recurrent funding of $4M has been allocated for organising more programmes under the Project in order to benefit more elderly persons. In 2019-20, a total of 368 programmes were launched by various organisations, attracting over 110 600 elderly participants.

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