The Working Group on Elder Abuse, set up in 2001, has been focusing on developing and updating the Procedural Guidelines for Handling Elder Abuse Cases as well as enhancing community awareness of abused cases including the awareness of frontline personnel of concerned disciplines. With the service infrastructure established, 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. In order to sustain the momentum in public education, and in view of the cultural background of the society, empowerment of elders as part of our preventive strategies will continue to be our major focus. Furthermore, attention will be placed on identifying high risk groups for more targeted intervention. Meanwhile, SWD will refine the Procedural Guidelines where necessary.

In 2009-11, SWD continued to provide training on core themes of domestic violence including child abuse, battered spouse, elder abuse and sexual violence, etc. Apart from about 120 training courses conducted at the central level, relevant training was arranged at the district level to meet individual district needs.

To enhance the public awareness of the importance of family solidarity and to encourage early help seeking for prevention of domestic violence and family tragedy, SWD continued to launch the Publicity Campaign on “Strengthening Families and Combating Violence” in 2009-10. The main theme of “Positive Thinking” with the slogan of “There are always More Solutions than Problems” (辦法總比困難多) was adopted in 2009-10. Through different publicity programmes and means, including advertisement at mass transportation platforms, display of messages in Yahoo for promotion of positive thinking, production of roadside boards and TV APIs, and broadcasting of new TV APIs in shopping malls of public housing estates, the messages of strengthening family and individual resilience so as to prevent violent behaviours have been further publicised to people of all social strata. In 2010-11, SWD worked in collaboration with RTHK to produce a series of docu-drama to arouse public awareness and concern about the issues in relation to child abuse, spouse/cohabitant battering, elder abuse, sexual violence and suicide, and to encourage needy person to seek early assistance.