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rehabilitation.
Viewed in this light, the Bill rests too much decision-making power in the medical personnel, although the care of the mentally ill should adopt a hoslistic approach by which social integration, occupational therapy, psychotherapy should carry as much weight as medical treatment.
Therefore,
the provision of a wide range of caring and therapeutic services outside the hospital such as community psychiatric nursing service, halfway houses, vocational training, sheltered
workshops, compassionate housing and social clubs are essential
support services that can provide long term solutions to the
care of the mentally ill.
supporting or
Without these support rehabilitation services, Sir, reviews to be carried out by the Mental Health Review Tribunal will only become superficial exercises that leave discharged mental patients out in the cold. I would, therefore, suggest that the relevant OMELCO Standing Panels should continue to monitor and review the existing mental health service delivery system and to oversee the implementation of this Bill. The low
priority presently awarded to psychiatric services, coupled with the short supply of psychiatrists, has accounted for the
Administration's reluctance to consent to the early implementation of the Bill, which is still subject to available
resources. Indeed, the enactment of the Mental Health (Amendment) Bill comes at an inopportune time when social welfare is hard hit by manpower shortages brought about by the lack of long-term manpower planning and the current brain drain. Under the present circumstances, it is difficult to foresee how the target set by the Social Welfare Department to recruit the 50 social workers required for implementing the Bill could be reached. I would, therefore, urge the Administration to make a firm commitment to providing the much-needed psychiatric services and to consider tapping the resources of private psychiatric practitioners. In addition, the Government must provide the necessary training in mental health for social workers concerned to acquire adequate knowledge and experience for the effective delivery of
Re