ENG-2005 — Page 246

204 Social Welfare

The department has been operating the Opportunities for the Elderly Project since 1999. It provides subsidies to community organisations to plan and run programmes to promote a sense of worth among the elderly and enhance community care and support services so that they can continue to live at home and maintain their maximum level of functioning. During the year, 285 programmes were launched with grants amounting to $2.7 million.

By the end of the year, more than a million Senior Citizen Cards had been issued. A total of 8 184 companies, organisations and government departments with 14 737 units and outlets, and 1 873 medical units with 2 096 branches participated in the card scheme to provide concessions, discounts and priority services to senior citizens.

Community Care and Support Services

At year-end, there were more than 210 centres for the elderly (including district. elderly community centres, social centres for the elderly and neighbourhood elderly centres), 120 elderly services teams (including district-based integrated home-care services teams, enhanced home and community care services teams, support teams for the elderly and a home help team), 50 day care centres/units, and one holiday centre for the elderly. Support is also provided for their care-givers.

Residential Care Services

Subsidised residential care places for the elderly totalled 26 976 by the end of the year, including 7 398 subsidised self-care hostel places and home-for-the-aged places, 11 587 subsidised care-and-attention home places, 1 765 subsidised nursing home places, and 6 226 purchased places in private residential care homes.

To meet the growing care needs of the elderly, the SWD will gradually convert. existing self-care and home-for-the-aged places into care-and-attention places providing a continuum of care. The conversion programme started in June 2005, and is to be implemented in phases.

The Government is committed to enhancing the quality of residential care homes for the elderly (RCHES). As the licensing authority, the department adopts a three- pronged approach; it is responsible for licensing control, capacity-building and monitoring and enforcement. The Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Ordinance and its subsidiary regulations provide for the regulation of RCHES through a licensing system. The SWD has adopted a new arrangement to make public the names of RCHES convicted under the ordinance or regulations on or after December 15, 2005, as a means to enhance consumers' access to information and RCHEs' vigilance over licensing requirements. The department has also implemented the revised Code of Practice for Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) October 2005, which provides more updated guidelines to RCHES on a wide range of subjects relating to their operation, including infection control and quality of care.

Rehabilitation Services

Government departments and NGOs provide a variety of rehabilitation services to meet the different needs of people with disabilities, with the objective of integrating them into society and helping them to fully develop their capabilities.