CHAPTER XII
CARE OF THE PHYSICALLY AND
MENTALLY HANDICAPPED
65. Although services for handicapped persons are still in their infancy in Hong Kong, increased interest is being taken in rehabilitation. The work of the Special Welfare Services Section, which concerns itself with the problems of disabled persons, has considerably expanded and by the end of the year its staff consisted of an Assistant Director, one Officer, nine Assistant Officers (four on loan from the Relief Section), and four Social Workers. The Hong Kong Council of Social Service has set up a sub-committee which plans to establish a rehabilitation centre for one hundred adult disabled persons, where physiotherapy and vocational training will be provided. The main aim of the centre will be to reintegrate the disabled into industry but it is also hoped that the project would indicate whether further development should be along the lines of such centres or of sheltered workshops. At the North Point Camp (see paragraph 58), the Department is providing some vocational training and sheltered work for seventy nine physically handicapped persons including twenty nine cured of leprosy. Rehabilita- tion of leprosy patients is mainly undertaken by the Mission to Lepers Hong Kong Auxiliary whose settlement at Hei Ling Chau had in care by the end of March 1958, 521 cases, of whom 213 had had the disease arrested. The Mission to Lepers has been particularly successful in reducing the disabilities of its patients by plastic surgery. During the year, fourteen disabled persons and their families have been found accommodation in the Resettlement Estates.
66. For orthopaedically handicapped children, the British Red Cross Society established special schools or classes for some 200 pupils in four hospitals. One of these, the Sandy Bay Children's Sanatorium of the Society for the Relief of Disabled Children, is planning to build a new wing to enable it to provide post-operative care for a total of double its present number of fifty four patients. The Handicapped Section of the Boy Scouts Association formed a scout troop in the Sanatorium and a cub pack in the Lai Chi Kok Hospital, in addition to its scouting activities at Hei Ling Chau, at the Hong Kong School for the Deaf and for the blind boys at North Point Camp.
67. In November 1957 a sub-committee on the welfare of the deaf was formed by the Social Welfare Advisory Committee. By March 1958,
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