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SOCIAL WELFARE
Shepherd and the Po Leung Kuk, and also by the department's two day-training centres.
In the field of rehabilitation the aim of the department is to give disabled people, where possible, the opportunity of becoming independent and self-supporting members of the community. This generally involves three things: treatment to help the disabled to adjust to their disabilities; vocational training to encourage them to make the fullest possible use of their residual skills and their. restoration to society through placement in remunerative employ- ment or appropriate schooling. Rehabilitation services are provided through 19 centres and institutions and are supplemented by the work of more than a dozen voluntary welfare organisations. The continuing expansion of these services was marked by the opening during the year of the department's Yuen Long Deaf Club, the Second Tung Tau Training Centre for mentally retarded children, and the Morninglight Centre of the Hong Kong Association for Mentally Handicapped and Young Persons Ltd. Various improve- ments were made to existing rehabilitation institutions. Success. in rehabilitating the disabled can be gauged by the department's experience in getting them jobs. During the year suitable employ- ment was found for 258 persons out of 382 applying for-jobs.
In addition to the three estate welfare buildings opened last year in the Lam Tin Resettlement Estate, in Shek Lei Resettlement Estate in Tsuen Wan and in Sau Mau Ping, two further buildings were opened at Tsz Wan Shan,and Ngau Tau Kok during the year. Another building has been completed and will be opened next year while planning for yet another three is under way. These centres are being provided in a ratio of one to every 50,000 residents. They are each of six storeys and provide accommodation for non- profit-making day nurseries, libraries, group and communal activity areas, family planning clinics, general out-patients clinics and departmental family casework offices.
PROBATION AND CORRECTION
The probation and correctional services of the department are concerned with the supervision of offenders on probation and the operation of correctional institutions. The probation service has a staff of 47 trained officers working with the courts. At the end of
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