Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1968-1969 — Page 33

MARINE DEPARTMENT LIBRARY

World Rehabilitation Fund Day Centre, situated in Kwun Tong and providing comprehensive facilities for vocational assessment and training, was opened by His Excellency the Governor on 5 September 1968. This Centre was built with a generous grant donated by the World Rehabilitation Fund and aims at providing the disabled with the most up-to-date forms of vocational training. The Kai Nang Training Centre was opened in March 1969 and provides vocational training for 160 mentally retarded persons as well as hostel accom- modation for 50 of them.

81. The mentally retarded have often been confused with the mentally ill, who can be cured after psychiatric treatment. Mental retardation is a disability which may be congenital or may arise as a result of severe illness, and there is no specific cure for it. The rehabilitation of people suffering from such a handicap depends partly on the severity of the disability, and partly on the application of appropriate vocational and other forms of training.

82. The mentally retarded are classified in three different grades (mild, medium and severe) and different measures are required to deal with each grade. The mildly retarded are capable of receiving an education with the help of special schooling. The majority can live a normal life after receiving adequate education, the provision of which is the responsibility of the Education Department. The severely retarded are the responsibility of the Medical and Health Department, partly because they are incapable of receiving any form of training and partly because they require constant care and attention. The medium grade comprises those persons who are incapable of receiving an education but are not so severely retarded as to require constant care and attention: their rehabilitation is a responsibility of the Social Welfare Department.

83. Efforts are made to provide them with suitable training so that they can exercise reasonable care of themselves, and to make the fullest possible use of their residual capacity to learn and apply a skill. This form of training is provided in the Department's Kai Nang, Tsan Yuk, Tung Tau and World Rehabilitation Fund Day Centres, which operate training classes during the day for a total of 240 persons, while the Aberdeen Rehabilitation Centre provides both training and residential accommodation for another hundred. In addition to these facilities the Po Leung Kuk's annex building, which was completed

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