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SLW extends new year greetings to nursing home elderly (with photos)
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     The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, today (February 15) visited the elderly in a nursing home in Shau Kei Wan to wish them good health and good luck in the Year of the Tiger.

     Accompanied by the District Social Welfare Officer (Eastern/Wan Chai), Mrs Kitty Yuk Kwok Lai-sum, Mr Cheung visited the St James' Settlement Scenic Resort (Nursing Home) at Oi Tung Estate around noon.

     He brought for the elderly mandarins and beautiful mandarin trees made with colourful towels by volunteers of Hong Kong Disneyland.

     Mr Cheung toured several multi-purpose rooms and dormitories for the elderly, and chatted with the elderly to learn about the services provided, including nursing care, personal care, meal services, rehabilitation services, and social and recreational activities, etc.

     He said, "The Government attaches great importance to elderly welfare and has allocated substantial resources to promote the well-being of elderly to enable them to enjoy their golden years and lead a fruitful life. In 2009/10, the Government has allocated $2.4 billion for the provision of residential care services for the elderly.

     "At present, the Government is providing 26,000 subsidised places in residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs), serving about 44% of all elderly staying in RCHEs throughout the territory. Five new contract RCHEs will commence service in the next three years, providing a total of about 500 places. The Social Welfare Department has also earmarked 12 other sites for the construction of new contract RCHEs to further increase the supply of these places.

     "We adopt a multi-pronged approach to increase subsidised residential care places, in particular nursing home places and long-term care places with continuum of care. New initiatives include increasing the proportion of nursing home places in existing contract RCHEs from an average of 50% to 90% and purchasing vacant places from self-financing nursing homes and care and attention homes. These are quality places offered by non-profit-making organisations. We will also fully utilise spaces in existing subsidised RCHEs to provide more long-term care places with continuum of care."

      Mr Cheung said that the Government will continue to devote resources to supporting those elderly people who live at home. In the next two years, additional subsidised day care places in districts with a stronger service demand will be provided. The District-based Scheme on Carer Training to give greater support to carers of the elderly at district and neighbourhood levels will also be extended.

     He said, "We will also examine ways to improve the existing home care services and encourage more organisations to provide such services through the operation of social enterprises."

Ends/Monday, February 15, 2010
Issued at HKT 13:00

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