the definition adopted for each class remains a matter for informed guess work only.
SUICIDES
81 During the year, four hundred and forty-four attempted suicides were referred to the department for interview, most of them by the police. They were given help in facing their problems, by way of coun- selling and support in dealing with personal relationships or other social difficulties, or help to obtain work or medical treatment, or in some cases material and financial help. Slightly more women than men attempted suicide and two of the commonest precipitating factors are personal conflicts and financial stress. Twenty-seven persons with evident symp- toms of mental illness were referred to the psychiatric service of the Medical and Health Department.
SOCIALLY HANDICAPPED
82 The resettlement of discharged tubercular patients, cured victims of Hansen's disease, and drug addicts after clinical cure, presents a special problem because of the difficulty of securing honest and ungrudg- ing social acceptance for their return to the community. A register is kept, and some have been given or found accommodation in resettlement estates, while a number do sheltered work at a settlement in Kwun Tong. A rehabilitation centre for drug addicts with a capacity of two hundred and fifty is run by the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts at Shek Kwu Chau, an island near Cheung Chau, where it has taken over the responsibilities of the previous drug addic- tion unit of the mental health service. Lutheran World Service also runs a club for ex-drug addicts. The Secretariat for Chinese Affairs is charged with the co-ordination of official work on this intractable social problem, and the government's Narcotics Advisory Committee has set up five sub-committees on Treatment and Rehabilitation, Educa- tion Publicity, Illicit Traffic, Deterrents, and Research.
83 The welfare of industrial workers is primarily the concern of the Labour Department; but the Special Welfare Services Section inves- tigates the family circumstances of all workers who have been killed or severely disabled in industrial accidents, and advises on the best form and frequency of payments under the Workmen's Compensation Ordin- ance, in the interests of the beneficiaries. In a hundred and twenty-three cases of fatal accident, the family conditions were investigated, and over a hundred and sixty earlier cases were reviewed.
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