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Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Kwok-che and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung, in the Legislative Council today (October 21):
Question:
The Government is consolidating the resources for three types of community mental rehabilitation services, namely Community Mental Health Link, Community Mental Health Care and Community Mental Health Intervention Project, to provide integrated community mental health services, and also set up the first Integrated Community Centre for Mental Wellness (ICCMW) in Hong Kong in Tin Shui Wai in the last financial year. The social welfare sector considers that such one-stop services can provide accessible services to the users and make effective use of resources. It therefore hopes that the Government will consolidate resources in the future to set up ICCMWs in various districts in Hong Kong. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:
(a) it has a timetable for setting up ICCMWs in other districts; if so, in which districts and when ICCMWs will be set up; and
(b) it will increase the number of healthcare professionals (e.g. psychiatric nurses and occupational therapists) in ICCMWs?
Reply:
President,
(a) The Government is mindful of the needs of persons with mental health problems and their family members / carers and proactively seeks to develop different models of community support services to meet their needs. To this end, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) set up the first Integrated Community Centre for Mental Wellness in Tin Shui Wai in March this year to provide one-stop and accessible integrated community mental health support services to discharged mental patients, persons with suspected mental health problems, their families / carers and residents living in the district. As announced by the Chief Executive in his 2009-10 Policy Address delivered last Wednesday (October 14), SWD will, in 2010-11, extend this district-based and one-stop service model to all 18 districts in the territory by re-engineering the existing community mental health support services and strengthening the manpower of these centres to provide integrated and accessible services to more persons in need.
(b) After the revamping of services, SWD will require the non-governmental organisation (NGO) operators of these centres to provide professional nursing care and occupational therapy services. Under the current Lump Sum Grant Subvention System, NGO operators have the flexibility to deploy the allocated provision to provide suitable staffing to meet service needs.
Ends/Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Issued at HKT 11:58
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