ENG-1988 — Page 207

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SOCIAL WELFARE

Family life education programmes have been provided for all age groups in the community to improve the quality of family life through the promotion of interpersonal relationships and social consciousness which may help to prevent family breakdowns and social problems. The 1988 theme of the annual publicity campaign 'Love and Care Help Build up a Happy Family', was aimed at promoting better communication and understanding among family members. In response to the central publicity campaign, promotional and educational activities have also been organised by social workers at the district level through 12 district committees and 56 family life education workers from 13 subvented welfare agencies. A central resource centre provides the necessary audio-visual equipment and resource materials in support of the service. All these activities are co-ordinated by the Social Welfare Department.

Social services are provided to patients and their families by medical social workers stationed in 103 medical social service units in government hospitals and clinics. Upon the enactment of the Mental Health (Amendment) Bill 1988 in June, additional posts have been created to strengthen psychiatric medical social service units to take up additional duties arising from the provisions in the bill.

Care of the Elderly

'Care in the Community' remains the guiding principle in the implementation and planning of services for elderly persons in Hong Kong. Subvented welfare agencies are the main provider of a wide range of community support services for the elderly which aim at encouraging families to look after their elderly members at home and to help old people to live independently. Community support services include counselling, home help, canteen, laundry, bathing services, community education, day care and social and recreational activities. At the end of the year, there were four outdoor recreational pool buses, 50 home help teams, 99 social centres for the elderly, 14 multi-service centres for the elderly and five day-care centres. Elderly people with housing needs may be eligible for compassionate rehousing, and priority allocation of public housing is also available for elderly people and families with elderly members or relatives. The department also provides two sheltered housing schemes for elderly people capable of living independently. These two schemes are located in 103 flats in two separate private housing developments, providing a total capacity of 595 residential places.

Residential facilities are provided for those elderly people, who, for health or other reasons, can no longer live alone or with their families. At the end of the year, there were 7 405 places in homes and hostels for the elderly and 1 816 places in care-and-attention homes. More homes for the elderly with a provision of care-and-attention units are being planned in public housing estates, and a number of purpose-built care-and-attention homes are also being planned.

A Central Committee on Services for the Elderly, comprising representatives from various government departments and voluntary agencies was set up under the auspices of the Health and Welfare Branch. The committee has reviewed various policy issues and provisions relating to services for the elderly.

A Registration Office of Private Homes for the Elderly has been set up to implement the Voluntary Registration Scheme of private homes for the elderly and to monitor the services of private elderly homes.

Services for Young People

A wide range of services has been designed for young people under the age of 25. The overall objective is to assist and encourage young people to become mature and responsible