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SLW visits private elderly home to promote personal and environmental hygiene (with photos)
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     The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, together with some volunteers visited a privately run elderly home in Sham Shui Po this morning (August 4) to promote awareness of personal and environmental hygiene among residents. He also took the opportunity to listen to the views of the residents and staff at the home.

     In support of the "Keep Clean 2015@Hong Kong: Our Home" Campaign, Mr Cheung, accompanied by Chief Social Welfare Officer (Elderly) of the Social Welfare Department (SWD) Mr Sebastian Tse, distributed cleaning and disinfection packs with the volunteeers to the residents and reminded them of the importance of personal and environmental hygiene.

     Mr Cheung noted that the SWD would provide one-off allocations to organisations operating subsidised welfare service units to step up cleanliness and precautionary measures. Cleaning and disinfection consumables will be provided to self-financing and private residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs) and persons with disabilities to assist their staff to step up efforts in keeping a clean environment. The SWD will also mobilise volunteers to pay visits to residential care homes and other vulnerable groups to enhance public education and promote personal and environmental hygiene awareness among service users and disadvantaged groups.

     During his visit, Mr Cheung chatted with residents of the RCHE to learn more about their lives in the home. He also met with the person-in-charge and the staff to understand their daily operations and hear the challenges they faced. Mr Cheung noted that many operators of private RCHEs are serving the community with their heart and making every effort to provide appropriate support services for elderly residents.

     "The Government has been adopting a multi-pronged approach to increase the provision of residential care places for the elderly. The SWD has already earmarked sites in 13 development projects for the provision of residential care homes. Together with some 7 000 residential care places for the elderly to be provided under the Special Scheme on Privately Owned Sites for Welfare Uses, a total of about 10 000 additional residential care places are in the pipeline," Mr Cheung said.

     "In tandem, private RCHEs have their role to play in the overall blueprint for elderly services. The Government will continue to purchase places from private RCHEs and self-financing RCHEs through the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme and the Nursing Home Place Purchase Scheme respectively. The Government keeps an open mind on various suggestions from the public on how to strengthen the monitoring of RCHEs. At this stage, the Government will place priority on examining the mechanisms within the existing legal framework to strengthen the monitoring of RCHEs to ensure the service standards of RCHEs," he added.

     Mr Cheung later went to Nam Cheong Estate in Sham Shui Po to visit a 90-year-old woman and her daughter, who is a recipient of the Pilot Scheme on Living Allowance for Carers of Elderly Persons from Low Income Families under the Community Care Fund. He said he was glad to learn that the allowance could provide an incentive to facilitate ageing at home.

     The Pilot Scheme aims at allowing elderly persons who are in need of long-term care services to receive proper care and enable them to remain in the community under the help of their carers. Since the scheme was launched at the end of last year till the end of last month, a total of 1 998 applications were approved. Most of the carers (approximately 96 per cent of all eligible cases) take care of one elderly person and each of them receives a monthly allowance of $2,000.

Ends/Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Issued at HKT 18:02

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