*****************************************
The Director of Social Welfare, Mr Paul Tang, at a seminar today (June 14), called for the concerted efforts of people from all walks of life in in helping prevent abuse cases with a view to building a caring society for the elderly.
Entitled "Preventing Elder Abuse: An Agenda for All", the seminar was organised by the Social Welfare Department in support of the first "World Elder Abuse Awareness Day" tomorrow (June 15) to enhance community understanding of the problem of elder abuse.
Officiating at the opening ceremony of the seminar, Mr Tang noted the number of elder abuse cases as captured by the Central Information System had increased from 329 cases in 2004 to 528 in 2005, an increase of 199 cases.
The major increase was recorded in the "non-relative" category, from 10 in 2004 to 200 in 2005. Among these 200 cases in which the abusers had no kinship bond with the victims, "friends and neighbours" accounted for more than half of the cases (129 out of 200) with the majority related to physical abuse.
Regarding the "relative" category, Mr Tang said that there was a small increase of nine cases from 319 in 2004 to 328 in 2005. Among these cases, more than 60% were battered spouses.
"This is in contrast to the general impression that the abusers are of the younger generation," he said, adding that the number of cases with daughters-in-law as the abusers fell from 37 in 2004 to 16 in 2005.
Mr Tang said the department had adopted a three-pronged intervention strategy to tackle the problem:
1. To ensure that known abuse cases are handled professionally by reviewing work flows and procedures, strengthening multi-disciplinary collaboration at case level, and enhancing workers' knowledge and skills on elder abuse, etc.
2. To identify abuse cases in the early stage by enhancing workers' sensitivity on potential abuse cases, empowering the elders to seek help, and involving community partners in identifying at risk cases, etc.
3. To strengthen preventive work, including stepping up family education on couple relationship for elders, reinstating the culture of respect of and the care for the elders, as well as advocating mutual support among neighbours.
On legislation, Mr Tang said that laws were already in place to protect elders from abusive behaviour such as physical abuse, sexual abuse and financial abuse. The elders were further protected under the Mental Health Ordinance if he or she was a mentally incapacitated person, he added.
The Domestic Violence Ordinance could also be applied to elder abuse cases where the victims and the abusers were spouses.
"The Government is reviewing the ordinance and is seeking public opinion. Tentatively, it is planned to extend the scope of the ordinance to cover ex-spouses and ex-cohabitants. Extending the ordinance to further cover other family relationship such as parents, grown-up children and in-laws will be studied in the latter stage," Mr Tang said.
"Elder abuse is also one of the main themes in the publicity campaign on Strengthening Families and Combating Violence," he said.
Mr Tang stressed that preventing elderly abuse was an agenda for everyone. Apart from the Government, non-governmental organisations and professionals, people from all walks of life including neighbours and local bodies also played an important role in early identifying the cases for effective intervention, he said.
Sharing views at today's seminar were the Vice-Chairman of the Elderly Commission and Director of the Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies, Professor Alfred Chan Cheung-ming; Senior Lecturer of Division of Social Studies of the City University of Hong Kong, Mr Chan Wai-to; experienced social worker and Member of the Guardianship Board, Ms Rita Lam Yu-kiu; Chairperson of the Hong Kong Outlying Islands Women's Association Limited, Ms Chau Chuen-heung; and Service Supervisor of the Salvation Army Tai Po Integrated Service for Senior Citizens, Mr Tsoi Man-yuen.
The Social Welfare Department and the non-governmental organisations are organising 56 programmes on the theme of prevention of elder abuse in various districts from June 10 to 18 to echo "World Elder Abuse Awareness Day".
Ends/Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Issued at HKT 11:51
NNNN
