ENG-1986 — Page 161

HEALTH

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It provides services in such areas as premarital counselling, contraception, sterilisation, vasectomy, and sub-fertility. The association also placed emphasis on health education promotional work involving family planning and sex education.

School Health

The School Medical Service Scheme is operated by an independent School Medical Service Board. Participation is voluntary and for a token fee of $10 a year children from Primary 1 to Form 3 can receive free medical attention from a general medical practitioner of the school's choice. The government contributes $65 a year for each pupil enrolled and also bears the administrative cost. The general response to the scheme is good: more than 349 000 school children from 879 schools have participated - representing about 44 per cent of the eligible school population – and more than 360 general medical practitioners have enlisted.

The School Health Service, a government responsibility, deals with the environmental health and sanitation of school premises and the control of communicable diseases. School health officers, health visitors and health inspectors make frequent inspections of schools to advise on matters concerning the health of children and organise health education activities and immunisation campaigns.

Mental Health

The department's Mental Health Service, in conjunction with other local academic and voluntary bodies, provides a comprehensive psychiatric service for the mentally ill in Hong Kong. The service is organised on a non-regional basis taking into account the overall need of the territory as a whole. The service consists of a network of psychiatric hospitals (3 107 beds), psychiatric units in general hospitals (592 beds) psychiatric clinics and psychiatric day-centres meeting the needs for in-patients, out-patients and day patients, supported by various aftercare services. In line with the universal trend of developing smaller psychiatric units within general hospitals, an additional 2 286 such beds are planned for future medical projects.

Special emphasis is placed on the follow-up and after-care of discharged mental patients during their reintegration into the community. The Community Psychiatric Nursing Service (CPNS) provided continuity in after-care treatment programmes to patients discharged from psychiatric hospitals as well as patients referred in from the psychiatric centres. Apart from the main centres in the major psychiatric hospitals, three new district CPNS centres have been established in Hong Kong and Kowloon to serve patients residing in the areas. One new centre will be established in the Hong Kong region in 1987. Other complementary rehabilitative supporting services include after-care social services, place- ment services, half-way houses, long-stay care homes and social clubs organised by various voluntary agencies.

Severely mentally handicapped persons requiring intensive nursing and medical treat- ment are cared for at the 200-bed Siu Lam Hospital and 300 beds in Caritas Medical Centre. A further 700 beds in this category have been planned for the next decade to meet the continuing need.

Dental Services

The School Dental Care Service provides regular dental examination and treatment services to primary school children. Essentially preventive in nature, the service has proved to be an appropriate and cost effective means of promoting dental health among school