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Following is a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, to a question by the Hon Leung Kwok-hung in the Legislative Council today (June 17):
Question:
The Social Welfare Department has implemented the Standardised Care Need Assessment Mechanism for Elderly Services since November 2000. As at February 28, 2009, assessment was completed for 134 770 referred cases. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of the number of cases for which assessment was completed in each financial year, and among such cases, the number of those which were assessed to be in need of follow-up, broken down by the District Council district in which the elderly people concerned reside and the areas in need of follow-up (set out in the table at annex)?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the Hon Leung Kwok-hung's question is as follows:
Since November 2000, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) has implemented the Standardised Care Need Assessment Mechanism for Elderly Services (Standardised Assessment Mechanism) to assess the long-term care needs of elders. From November 2000 to February 2009, the number of assessment cases completed in each financial year is as follows:
No. of assessment cases
Year completed within the year
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2000/01
(November 2000–
March 2001) 2 408
2001/02 12 126
2002/03 12 997
2003/04 12 162
2004/05 17 691
2005/06 19 033
2006/07 18 980
2007/08 20 585
2008/09
(April 2008–
February 2009) 18 788
Total: 134 770
Under the Standardised Assessment Mechanism, accredited assessors will assess the care needs of elders with an internationally recognised assessment tool named "Minimum Data Set-Home Care" (MDS-HC) and match appropriate long-term care services for the elders. Assessors will conduct comprehensive assessments on the applicants' abilities in activities of daily living, physical functioning, memory, communication skills, behaviour and emotion, health conditions, living environment and coping capabilities etc., in order to ascertain their long-term care needs and recommend suitable services.
The 30 follow-up areas mentioned in the question constitute part of MDS-HC. They are for initial identification of potential or existing problems of the elders so that the concerned staff can refer to such problems when formulating individual care plans for the elders and take follow-up or suitable preventive measures. As mentioned above, when conducting assessment for each applicant, the assessor will consider various aspects of the elder's condition before recommending appropriate services. SWD has not compiled statistics for the above individual follow-up areas.
Ends/Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Issued at HKT 11:31
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