HEALTH
Medical Care for the Elderly
The provision of medical services for elderly patients is a priority area. Geriatric services are now provided in all acute hospitals. Eight community geriatric assessment teams and eight psychogeriatic teams provide specialist support to elderly persons living in subvented residential homes, as well as to their carers. There are also 447 geriatric day places provided for elderly patients in public hospitals.
Nursing homes with medical and nursing facilities are being developed to bridge the gap between existing care-and-attention homes and infirmaries. Non-profit-making organisations are being invited to build and manage some of these homes with assistance from the government in the form of land, capital and recurrent subvention. There are six nursing homes under construction with a total provision of 1 400 beds. The first nursing home is expected to commence operation towards the end of 1997. The Department of Health runs four elderly health centres to provide health screening, counselling and health promotion activities for elderly people. Health Ambassador training courses for the elderly, an innovation to promote elderly health through community participation, made its debut in 1996.
Services for the Mentally Ill and Mentally Handicapped
At the end of 1996, 4 075 beds were provided in psychiatric hospitals and 1 661 beds in public psychiatric units of general hospitals. The number of psychiatric day. hospital places remained at 574. The redevelopment of Castle Peak Hospital, one of the territory's two main psychiatric hospitals, is under way. An additional 712 psychiatric beds are being planned by the year 2000.
Community work and aftercare units of psychiatric hospitals help discharged patients. The community psychiatric nursing service and domiciliary occupational therapy service, in particular, aim to provide continual care and treatment. programmes for discharged mental patients in their home settings. This assists. patients' social readjustment while educating them and their families on mental health. Three community psychiatric teams and eight psychogeriatic teams have been set up to provide designated care and rehabilitation programmes to psychiatric and psychogeriatric patients. There are 12 community psychiatric nursing service centres. Other complementary rehabilitative services include day-centres, half-way house, long-stay care homes, vocational training, selective placement and social clubs, run by government departments and non-government organisations.
Severely mentally handicapped persons requiring intensive nursing care and rehabilitation services are cared for at Tuen Mun Hospital (200 beds), Caritas Medical Centre (300 beds) and Siu Lam Hospital (300 beds). Two outreach teams have been established to provide services for early intervention.
Community Nursing Service
The Hospital Authority's Community Nursing Service (CNS) provides rehabilitative nursing care and treatment to the sick, the elderly infirm and the disabled through a network of 37 CNS centres. During the year, 27 260 patients were served and 376 988 home visits were made.
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