Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1971-1972 — Page 17

48. The Department is responsible for the rehabilitation of men- tally retarded persons who are intellectually incapable of attending a normal school but are not so severely retarded as to require constant care and attention. Efforts are made to provide them with suitable training so that they can exercise reasonable care of themselves and make the fullest possible use of their residual capacity to learn and apply a skill. This form of training is provided in the Kai Nang Training Centre, the Children's Centre of the Aberdeen Rehabilitation Centre and the Tsan Yuk and Tung Tau Children's Centres. All of these are operated by the Department. In addition to these facilities residen- tial care and training facilities are provided by the Po Leung Kuk, the Salvation Army Home at Cheung Chau, the Save the Children Fund's two centres at Wang Tau Hom and Chai Wan Resettlement Estate, and the Morning Light Centre at Wah Fu Estate operated by the Hong Kong Association for Mentally Handicapped Children and Young Person. In November 1971 the Department took part in the Exhibition of the 24th Annual Meeting of the World Federation for Mental Health in Hong Kong.

49. Ex-mental patients are also assisted. Aftercare and vocational training are provided in various centres, together with casework serv- ices for their families. Both the Mental Health Association of Hong Kong and the New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association with financial assistance from Government provide half-way houses for ex- mental patients. The latter also runs a farm and a sheltered workshop.

50. The number of blind persons voluntarily registered with the Department stands at 5,725. The Department provides club activities, sheltered work and vocational training in three centres. The Hong Kong Society for the Blind also provides training and sheltered work in various centres, togethe with hostel accommodation. The Society com- pleted a Home for the Aged Blind during the year. The Home caters for 100 aged blind of both sexes and is the first of its kind in Hong Kong. Two other voluntary agencies, namely the Ebenezer School and Home for the Blind and the Canossa School for the Visually Disabled, have concentrated mainly on providing special education for blind children who cannot enter normal schools. The position now reached is that any young blind person can be provided with an education, and can subsequently be prepared for employment either in a training centre or alternatively provided with a place for sheltered work.

11