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Discharged mental patients sharing public housing units
Following is a question by the Hon Fred Li Wah-ming and a written reply by the Secretary for Health and Welfare, Mrs Katherine Fok, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):
Question:
With regard to a recent wounding incident involving four discharged mental patients who shared the same public housing unit, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the total number of cases in which discharged mental patients were allocated public housing units through arrangements made by the Social Welfare Department in the past three years;
(b) whether the social workers concerned have paid any visits to the discharged mental patients involved in the above-mentioned incident in the past two years; if not, what are the reasons; and
(c) what interim and long-term measures the Government has put in place to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future?
Reply:
(a) Over the three years up to and including 1994/95, 463 ex-mentally ill people have been allocated public housing units through the Compassionate Rehousing Scheme.
(b) Over the past two years, the four persons involved in the case in question have been in regular contact with social workers and officers of Social Welfare Department when receiving various welfare services including medical social services, training in sheltered workshops and benefits under the Comprehensive Social Security Scheme. They have attended follow-up sessions at psychiatric clinics at regular intervals. Social workers who had been in contact with them in delivering these services had not noticed any particular problems before the occurrence of this incident. In view of the regular contacts between the four and social workers in the provision of services, it had been considered unnecessary to supplement these contacts with any home visits.