ENG-1987 — Page 186

11

Social Welfare

福社

765

க

IN the constant effort to provide more and better welfare services to meet the rising expectations of the people, the Social Welfare Department works closely with the subvented welfare agencies.

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The Director of Social Welfare is responsible for carrying out government policies on social security and social welfare, based on the objectives set out in three White Papers - Integrating the Disabled into the Community: A United Front (1977), Social Welfare into the 1980s (1979), and Primary Education and Pre-primary Services (1981).

In its social welfare work, the government is also advised on policy by two groups -- the Social Welfare Advisory Committee, covering the area of social welfare, and the Rehabili- tation Development Co-ordinating Committee, on matters of rehabilitation. Members of these committees are appointed by the Governor, with unofficial members as chairmen.

Most of the subvented welfare agencies, which play a big role in providing welfare services, are affiliated to the Hong Kong Council of Social Service.

As a result of the combined efforts of the government and community groups in promoting mental health education, there is now a greater understanding by the people of mental illness, as well as more acceptance of half-way houses established for discharged mental patients to help reintegrate them into society.

In response to the United Nations' designation of 1987 as the Year of Shelter for the Homeless, various services were introduced for street sleepers. A day relief centre and a temporary shelter were opened to provide personal facilities and temporary residential care and four outreaching teams from family service centres were set up to look into the needs of street sleepers and to render service.

As for the care of the growing elderly population, various welfare services were developed for them, including residential care. There was also an increasingly felt need for care and attention home places for the frail aged. In addition to planning to provide purpose-built care-and-attention homes, special effort is being made to set up care-and- attention units in homes for the aged in public housing estates.

In the area of services for offenders, the Community Service Orders Pilot Scheme was implemented from January this year in three magistracies. This enables the courts to order youths over the age of 14 years who are convicted of an offence punishable by imprison- ment to perform unpaid work of benefit to the community in place of, or in addition to, another sentence. The scheme will be reviewed after two years to consider its suitability for Hong Kong.

Based on a proposal by the Fight Crime Committee, a Young Offender Assessment Panel, comprising professional staff from the Correctional Services Department and the Social Welfare Department, was set up in April to offer advice on rehabilitation with the view to assisting the courts in the sentencing of young offenders.