SOCIAL WELFARE
in December 1996. The scheme assists discharged prisoners in their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
One subvented organisation also provides hostel, employment, casework and volunteer services to help ex-offenders reintegrate into the community.
Family and Child Welfare
The Social Welfare Department and non-governmental organisations provide a variety of family and child welfare services. The overall objective is to preserve and strengthen the family as a unit through assisting individuals and families to identify and prevent or solve their problems.
About 3 864 programmes such as talks, small group activities and mass media programmes were conducted by 79 family life education workers of the department and non-governmental organisations.
The territory has 65 family services centres. Services provided include counselling, referrals for child care, elderly and rehabilitation services, job placement, financial and housing assistance. With an establishment of 698 family caseworkers at the end of 1996, the centres handled a total of 68 600 cases during the year.
Family aide service is provided to train clients on home management and child care and help families attain self-reliance. A family care demonstration and resource centre provides training in practical home management and caring skills, as well as resource materials for clients and social workers. Nineteen family activity and resource centres were set up in government-run community centres to provide a drop- in service, mutual support and early identification and referral of cases in need of intensive casework service.
Clinical psychological service, with a staff of 40 clinical psychologists, provides in- depth assessment and treatment to people suffering from psychological and behavioural problems. They also provide support to caseworkers and residential homes.
Three refuge homes provide 120 short-term residential places for women and their children who are victims of domestic violence and for girls at risk; also 117 home help teams provide meals, personal care and household services to those in need.
The department continues to tackle the problem of street-sleeping through its outreaching teams and family services centres, plus temporary shelters, urban hostels, and day relief centres operated by non-governmental organisations. A multi- disciplinary outreaching team, aiming at elderly street sleepers, was set up in March. 1996 on an experimental basis for two years.
The department operates a telephone hotline service which provides information on welfare services to callers with pre-recorded messages or through facsimile transmission on a 24-hour basis. Social workers are on duty to provide immediate counselling and advice to customers in need, especially to those in crisis situations. A wide range of child welfare services is provided. An adoption service arranges permanent homes for children in need. Residential child care services are provided for children and young people who need care and protection because of family crises or their behavioural or emotional problems. The development of the service is guided by the principle that a family setting is the best environment for the healthy development of a child and should be the preferred choice over an institutional setting. At the end
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