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Social Welfare
Professional Back-up and Support Services
Support services provided by clinical psychologists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists are available to persons with disabilities in rehabilitation day centres and hostels. Speech therapy is available to children attending pre-school rehabilitation centres.
A range of community support services is available to persons with disabilities and their families/carers including ex-mentally ill persons living in the community. These include district. support centres for persons with disabilities, home care services for persons with severe disabilities, community rehabilitation day centres, integrated community centres for mental wellness, day care services for persons with severe disabilities, and rehabilitation services for persons with visceral disability or chronic illnesses.
Day and residential respite services for persons with disabilities, occasional child care service for pre-schoolers with disabilities and parents/relatives resource centres are also available. In addition, there are social and recreational centres for persons with disabilities to encourage them to participate in community leisure activities.
Medical Social Services
Medical social workers are stationed in public hospitals and some specialist clinics to provide assistance and services for patients and/or their families with welfare needs, helping them recover and reintegrate into society. SWD medical social workers dealt with about 178,703 cases in 2014.
Services for Offenders
The SWD performs a number of statutory functions and provides community-based and residential services to help people who have committed crimes reintegrate into the community and become law-abiding citizens.
The probation service helped 4,037 offenders during the year and arrangements were made for 2,437 offenders placed on Community Service Orders (CSOs) to perform unpaid community work under supervision. Probation officers assess and report to the courts on offenders' suitability for probation orders and/or CSOs, and supervise those under the orders. The officers also prepare reports on long-term prisoners and petitioners being considered for early release.
In 2014, SWD continued to provide on a pilot basis treatment programmes for convicted young drug offenders aged below 21 under probation supervision that are more focused, structured and intensive.
The Tuen Mun Children and Juvenile Home, with 388 places, provides educational, pre- vocational and character training for juvenile offenders as well as children and young persons with behavioural and/or family problems.
The Correctional Services Department and the SWD jointly run the Young Offender Assessment Panel, providing the courts with professional views on sentencing options for offenders aged 14 to below 25, and the Post-Release Supervision of Prisoners Scheme, which assisted 776
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