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The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, paid tribute to all carers of the elderly in Hong Kong who have contributed selflessly to their families and the elderly at the Carers' Recognition Ceremony today (November 18).
Mr Cheung said that families play a major role in caring for the elderly as most carers are looking after the elderly members of their own families. Apart from providing subsidised elderly services to elders in need, the Government is committed to strengthening mutual support among family members and improving their ability to look after the elderly.
"I deeply understand that taking care of elderly members is a challenge for the families. Yet they are not alone on the battlefield," Mr Cheung said.
He said that there are at present over 150 District Elderly Community Centres (DECCs) and Neighbourhood Elderly Centres, providing a wide range of support services to carers of elders. The Government has recently launched a trial scheme in three districts, namely the Eastern and Wan Chai, Wong Tai Sin and Sai Kung, and Kowloon City and Yau Tsim Mong districts. The scheme provides funding for 11 DECCs to run, in collaboration with community organisations, basic carer training courses and to develop carer services. The courses were launched in October this year, providing about 660 training places in the first year.
In the coming year, the Government will further enhance carer support services, including increasing the number of day care places for the elderly and implementing another pilot scheme in Kwun Tong early next year to provide integrated support services to elderly hospital dischargees. Also, the Government will continue to enhance information dissemination on elderly services so that elders and carers will know where to seek help.
As for single and hidden elders, this year's Policy Address has announced a number of initiatives on "Care for the Elderly", including enhancing the outreach efforts to single and hidden elders; strengthening the referral, counselling and support services of DECCs, and earmarking one-off funding of $200 million to help improve the home environment of elderly people in need.
"We will continue to listen to the views and suggestions of the public. We will also seek to introduce more targeted initiatives that suit the circumstances and provide assistance to those elders who are genuinely in need," he added.
Mr Cheung said he hoped that the event today would help enhance the community's awareness of caring for the elderly and promote a caring society and that all families would be filled with love and from there develop a caring culture.
Ends/Sunday, November 18, 2007
Issued at HKT 12:01
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