Traditional Chinese Simplified Chinese Email this article news.gov.hk
LCQ16: Dementia
***************

     Following is a question by the Hon Tang Ka-piu and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today (June 17):

Question:

     According to the information released by the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, currently about 10 per cent of the elderly persons (i.e. people aged 65 or above) in Hong Kong, i.e. about 100 000 people, are suffering from dementia. With an ageing population, the number of such patients is estimated to reach 280 000 by 2036. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) whether it has compiled, in the past five years, statistics on the annual changes in the number of dementia patients in order to project the demand for the relevant services; if it has, of the relevant data; if not, whether it will consider compiling the statistics;

(2) among the current users of subsidised community care and support services for the elderly (including day care centres for the elderly and integrated home care services (frail cases)) and the residents of care-and-attention homes, of the respective numbers of persons confirmed to have dementia;

(3) among the elderly persons currently assessed to be of mild, moderate and severe impairment levels under the Standardised Care Need Assessment Mechanism for Elderly Services, of the respective numbers and percentages of those who are suffering from dementia and, among them, the number of persons who are waiting for subsidised long-term community care and support services;

(4) of the details of the services provided in the past three years by the Government for the elderly persons suffering from dementia, including the name of the services, the amount of the annual public expenditure and the number of service recipients; and

(5) whether it knows the number of places and the utilisation of the services provided by non-governmental organisations (NGO) for elderly persons suffering from dementia; if it knows, of the details of such services last year; in view of the rising trend in the number of dementia patients amid an ageing population, whether the authorities will consider subsidising, through the Community Care Fund or other means, the patients to use the fee-charging services operated by such NGO?

Reply:

President,

(1) The Government does not compile statistics on the annual changes in the number of persons with dementia in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, relevant service providers have been closely monitoring the needs of persons with dementia so as to provide them with appropriate services.  

(2) The Social Welfare Department (SWD) does not keep statistics on the service users of various types of elderly services who are diagnosed with dementia.

(3) The SWD does not keep statistics on persons diagnosed with dementia among those elderly persons who have been assessed as having different levels of impairment under the Standardised Care Need Assessment Mechanism for Elderly Service.

(4) Support services for the elderly persons ageing in the community and their families are provided by the 210 subvented elderly centres in the territory. The services include training and counselling services, assistance in forming carers' mutual help groups, setting up resources centres, demonstration and loan of rehabilitation equipment, etc. Since 2014-15, an additional full-year recurrent funding of some $22 million has been provided to 41 district elderly community centres to employ more social workers with a view to enhancing the support services for elderly persons with dementia and their carers.

     For frail elderly persons (including, among others, those with dementia) and their families, the Government provides support through 72 subsidised day care centres/units for the elderly (DE/DCU), 34 enhanced home and community care services teams, 60 integrated home care services teams and some 26 900 subsidised residential care places for the elderly. Moreover, Dementia Supplement (DS) has been provided as an additional support for elderly persons with dementia in subvented residential care homes for the elderly (RCHE), private RCHE participating in the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme (EBPS) and subsidised DE/DCU. The expenditure incurred in 2013-14 and 2014-15 and the expenditure estimated for 2015-16 is as follows:

                    2013-14     2014-15    2015-16
                  ($ million) ($ million) ($ million)
Subvented RCHE /
Private RCHE          202.2       210.1     219.8
Participating
in EBPS                        

Subsidised DE /        14.7        15.7      17.6
DCU                                          

     With the funding allocation of DS, RCHE and DE/DCU concerned may employ additional professional staff, including occupational therapists, nurses and social workers, etc, or purchase relevant professional services. DE/DCU may also use DS to provide training programmes and services for elderly persons with dementia as well as support services for their carers as necessary.

     The number of service units allocated with DS and the number of elderly persons benefited in 2013-14 and 2014-15 and the corresponding estimates for 2015-16 are as follows:

                       2013-14     2014-15    2015-16

Number of Subvented
RCHE / Private RCHE      256        253        261
Participating in EBPS                                 

Number of Subsidised      66         70         71
DE / DCU                                    

Number of Elderly      about        about      about  
Persons Benefitted     5 600        5 800      6 400

     On health-care services, the multi-disciplinary teams of the Hospital Authority (HA) are committed to providing holistic health-care services for persons with dementia and their carers. Health-care professionals will formulate individualised treatment plans for patients according to the severity of their conditions and provide appropriate in-patient, out-patient, day rehabilitation training and community outreach services according to the needs of each case. The HA also provides support and training for families and carers of elderly persons with dementia through different channels with a view to enhancing their understanding of the disease and the relevant caring skills.  

     Elderly patients residing at RCHE, including those suffering from dementia, are supported by the outreach services of the HA through its community geriatric assessment teams and psychogeriatric outreach teams. Services provided include formulation of treatment plans, monitoring of patients' recovery and follow-up consultations. The psychogeriatric outreach teams also provide training for staff of RCHE when required to equip them with the necessary skills in taking care of elderly patients with dementia. At present, the services of community geriatric assessment teams cover about 640 RCHE while the psychogeriatric outreach services cover most of the subsidised RCHE and over 200 private RCHE in the territory.    

     The HA has also made available information relating to dementia, care management and community resources on its one-stop Smart Patient website, with a Smart Elders webpage dedicated to strengthening support for high-risk elderly patients.

     Regarding the use of drugs, HA has been taking measures over the years to increase the use of new anti-dementia drugs with proven clinical efficacy to improve the quality of life and delay the functional deterioration of dementia patients. In 2014-15, HA allocated an additional funding of $12 million to increase the use of new anti-dementia drugs from which about 2 700 more patients benefited. The HA will continue to keep in view the development of new anti-dementia drugs and review the use of drugs through the established mechanism.

     The HA does not maintain statistics on the breakdown of expenditure for dementia support service.

(5) The SWD provides support services for elderly persons with dementia through subsidising non-governmental organisations, and details are set out in part (4) above. The SWD also launched the first phase of the Pilot Scheme on Community Care Service Voucher for the Elderly in September 2013. At present, seven recognised service providers under the Pilot Scheme offer specialised day care services for demented elderly persons, providing a total of 104 service places. As at end-May 2015, 187 elderly users have received such services. The SWD does not have detailed information on the self-financing support and care services for demented elderly persons provided by non-governmental organisations.

Ends/Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Issued at HKT 17:35

NNNN

Print this page