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SOCIAL WELFARE
are primarily concerned with promoting mutual concern and a community spirit through community organisations such as mutual aid committees, owners' corporations, area committees, kaifong welfare associations, rural committees, and clansmen's associations. The Social Welfare Department is responsible for various aspects of group and community work aimed to promote the social development of individuals and groups.
Purpose-built facilities - community centres, estate community centres, community halls and children's and youth centres - provided throughout the territory are run either by the Social Welfare Department or by voluntary agencies. During 1981, a working group was set up to review standards of the provision and facilities in community centres.
Rehabilitation
Rehabilitation of the disabled is one of the government's prime concerns in the social welfare field. Services aim at enabling disabled people to develop their physical, mental and social capabilities to the fullest extent possible and assists in their integration into the community. The department is responsible for meeting the general welfare and social rehabilitation needs of the disabled, either through direct services or by providing subventions to voluntary agencies, which continue to play an active role in the development of services in this field.
In line with recommendations made in the 1977 Rehabilitation White Paper, a number of changes in departmental responsibilities have taken place. The Education Department is now responsible for all aspects of the education and training of disabled children of school- age and will soon assume responsibility for boarding care and transport services in special schools. Also, since August 1980, the Education Department has started assuming responsibility for vocational training of disabled young persons and adults. The Selective Placement Service of the Labour Department is now responsible for the job placement of deaf, blind and physically disabled people and in stages will take over the placement of the ex-mentally ill, the mentally and socially handicapped.
The Social Welfare Department provides counselling services, day and residential centres, sheltered workshops, work activity centres and special sport, recreational and transport arrangements for the disabled. The department operates 20 centres and institutions and subvents 67 centres run by voluntary agencies, serving a total of 10 600 disabled people.
Considerable shortfalls have been identified in the Rehabilitation Programme Plan in the provision of care for the mentally handicapped and the ex-mentally ill. The 1981 review has recommended an accelerated expansion programme of residential services for the mentally handicapped and the ex-mentally ill including an annual addition of 500 places for the moderately and severely mentally handicapped and 150 places for the ex-mentally ill.
At present, it is planned to expand the provision of sheltered workshop facilities at the rate of 300 additional places per year, with three workshops opened in 1981. In order to better assess demand for this service, a working group with representatives from the government and the voluntary and commercial sectors has been formed to conduct a comprehensive review of the service and to determine a long term development policy. The working group's proposals are expected by mid-1982.
Day care in work activity centres is now accepted as an essential service for mentally handicapped adults who cannot benefit from vocational training, open employment, or sheltered work. Five centres were opened in 1981 bringing the total to nine, with an overall capacity of 492 places. The shortfall in this area is very large and the 1981 programme plan review recommended that the annual expansion should be increased to 340 places for 1981-2 and 150 places from 1982 onwards.