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The Government is committed to improving the quality of life for the elderly and will strengthen support services to them and their carers to attain this goal, the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, said.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Active Ageing Evening today (July 28), Mr Cheung said that the Government is sparing no effort to promote home care service for the elderly. Those in need will be provided subsidised home-based community care and day care services.
The Labour and Welfare Bureau, together with the Elderly Commission and Social Welfare Department, launched a pilot scheme on elderly carer training last week. The scheme aims at promoting knowledge on basic elderly care at the district level, fostering a culture of care for the elderly and promoting a neighbourhood spirit. It also helps enhance cooperation between elderly community centres and district organisations.
The pilot scheme covers three districts: Eastern and Wan Chai, Wong Tai Sin and Sai Kung as well as Kowloon City and Yau Tsim Mong. The elderly community centres in these districts will work in partnership with district organisations to organise and promote basic elderly care training courses. This will help train persons to play the role of paid or volunteer "elderly sitter" to serve the needy elderly in the district.
"We will continue to improve the quality of elderly homes and implement progressively the concept of continuum care in these homes. We are also strengthening the support to elders who have been discharged from hospitals and are enhancing training to carers of elders," Mr Cheung said.
The Labour and Welfare Bureau is joining hands with the Elderly Commission to stage a series of Active Ageing activities this year to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Elderly Commission. One of the highlights was the "Active Ageing Evening" which was jointly organised with Radio Television Hong Kong Radio 5.
"The Elderly Commission has all along worked closely with the Government in promoting the message of active ageing and in building up a positive image for the elderly. The Commission has also given invaluable advice to the Government in the formulation of policies on elderly care and in the planning and development of programmes on elderly care," Mr Cheung said.
Also speaking at the same function, the Chairman of the Elderly Commission, Dr Leong Che-hung, noted that 32 Elder Academies attached to schools would start admission in autumn. (For details about the Elder Academies, please refer to the annex 1.)
Dr Leung said that the Elderly Commission strived to improve elderly services at different levels and was dedicated to promoting a positive image of elders as well as fostering inter-generational harmony and cross-sectoral collaboration. This enabled the elderly to join with the younger generation to continue contributing to the community.
"The Elder Academy realises the concept of cross-sectoral collaboration and inter-generational harmony. It is a platform to motivate elders to practise continued learning. About 5,000 places will be available in the coming academic year for elders to participate in courses run by the Elder Academies," he said.
At tonight's ceremony, Mr Cheung, Dr Leong and the Head of Chinese Programme Service of RTHK, Mr Philip Chow, presented prizes to winners of three competitions.
The Media Award on "Active Ageing" was given in commendation of media programmes that promoted the message of "Active Ageing" effectively in the past year. Winners of the television programme category, radio programme category and printed media category were RTHK's television programme team, Commercial Radio and Sing Tao Daily respectively.
The "Elder Community Work Project" competition encouraged elders to team up with the younger generation to work on a proposal to improve the environment or facilities with a view to building up a better community and enhancing integration between the elderly and the younger generation. The winner of this competition was Ms Yue Oi-lin.
The "Story of Hong Kong" competition invited elders to share a memorable "life story" after Hong Kong's handover. It was hoped that youngsters could learn from their experience and that they could work together in building up a better community. The winner of the competition was Lo Kwan.
Ends/Saturday, July 28, 2007
Issued at HKT 19:06
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