APPENDIX 9-Contd
ideas, and for teamwork, between institutions and between the professions who practise from them-doctor, surgeon, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, appliance technician, social worker and vocational placement officer. What is also important is to ensure that a balance is preserved between the various services, and that there should be no gaps and no overlaps. We already have, of course, a number of institution on the medical and ther- apeutic side where splendid work is being done. Here at Aberdeen the rehabilitation services to be provided are principally social and vocational in intent. Some good work is already being done in this field elsewhere but the opening of this new Centre will be an important landmark in Hong Kong's progress in that it will help to close a gap by constituting one more link, and an important one, in the interlocking complex of institutions being developed here in Hong Kong to meet our needs.
The residents and staff of this Centre have been settling in for just over two months, but the real work still lies ahead. I suppose that one of the most important tasks is to enlist community interest and a positive public response to the need for widening oppor tunities for the disabled to find proper employment after training. In this, the social workers in the rehabilitation field will certainly look first for help to their colleagues, both in the Social Welfare Department and in the various voluntary organizations which run social services in Hong Kong. But the wider public must help too; particularly the employers, whom we so frequently look to for example and leadership. As I have said before, nearly all disabled people after treatment or training, are capable of some employment; and if the right jobs are found for them it will be discovered that they can carry them out just as effectively as workers in full enjoyment of all their natural faculties. The handicapped should not be excluded from work just because they fail to reach some arbitrary minimum standard of overall physical fitness set down in an organization's general condition of employment. Regard must be had to the requirements of the particular job, and if selective criteria are applied, many handicapped persons will be found to be fully efficient and indeed particularly loyal and grateful employees. In this way also, the able-bodied can be transferred to meet other needs. Some employers in Hong Kong, I understand, have already given chances to handicapped workers to prove their worth. These employers have good reason to be proud of the lead they have shown. I am grateful to them, and I hope others will follow their example: if any employers are interested, I hope they will consult the Director of Social Welfare who is always ready to advise on the employment of the handicapped.
And now I would like to say a brief word to the residents in training. When you leave this Centre and go out to do a job of work, remember that you are ambassadors for others who will go after you. If you prove that your skill is valuable to your employer, if you show that in spite of your misfortune there are things which you can do as well as, or better than, those who are not disabled, then employers will become ready and even anxious to give work to the handicapped. Few of you, I know, need to be advised that an uncom- plaining smile and a confident approach are the other keys to acceptance.
And so to everyone who works in this Centre, and to all who will benefit from it, I offer my best wishes for the future. The staff will have to show infinite patience in restoring to some of the residents their sense of 'Belonging' as useful-not just as useful, as needed- members of their own families and of the general community. Success in such work is not easy; but it must be as rewarding as any professional achievement that I can think of. It is, moreover, work of very real practical value to the community and the community is in your debt for undertaking it. I personally see here a practical recognition of the real worth and true dignity of the individual human being, and I do believe that the opening of this Centre may be offered as proof that the community recognizes its obligation to help in your task of assisting the disabled to win back their lost capacity to lead creative, satisfying and full lives."
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