SOCIAL WELFARE
199
Red Cross Society of the Princess Alexandra Children's Home which provides care and special education for 60 crippled children, and by the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation, founded in 1959, of a pilot medical rehabilitation centre catering particularly for victims of industrial accidents, with a capacity of 80 in-patients. The Social Welfare Department's new centre at Aberdeen, with a maximum capacity of 600, was expected to be completed by the end of 1963. Its expanded vocational training facilities will operate in conjunction with the new surgical appliance centre of the Medical and Health Department, with the aim of continuing the rehabilitative process from medical treatment through vocational training to final resettlement in employment. With Government and certain industrialists giving a lead, a total of 136 handicapped have been placed in employment so far, of whom 44 are in public service or with the armed forces, the rest being mainly in factory or other undertakings in the private sector.
Provision for mentally defectives has lagged behind those for other handicapped groups. But the recommendations of Dr L. T. Hilliard in his report on the problem of mental deficiency in Hong Kong and the enactment of the Mental Health Ordinance in 1960 have laid foundations for the enlightened treatment of the problem of mental deficiency and mental illness in Hong Kong. Since 1958 a total of 830 mentally retarded persons has been discovered. During the year, a temporary custodial home for 43 severe grade defectives was opened at the Tung Wah Hospital by the Medical and Health Department and a second day centre for the training of 60 medium grade defectives was established by the Social Welfare Department in Kowloon, in addition to the first centre for 40 on Hong Kong Island. In the aftercare of the mentally ill, the Department co-operated with the almoners of the psychiatric service in finding accommodation for homeless patients and in arranging for vocational training and employment; in addition the Lutheran World Service, which has expanded its work for the handicapped, has a small fund for helping the mentally ill. Another group of patients for whom voluntary treatment is encouraged are drug addicts. The Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts opened its island centre at Shek Kwu Chau on 23rd April, taking in cured patients discharged from the Castle Peak Hospital.