Social Welfare ❘ 199
Social Security Appeal Board
The Social Security Appeal Board considers appeals against SWD's decisions on CSSA, SSA and TAVA issues. The board ruled on 313 appeals during the year.
Services for the Elderly
The Government encourages and assists elderly people to lead active and healthy lives. It provides a range of home-based and centre-based care services to enable elders to continue living in places and environments with which they are familiar. Elders who need long-term care but cannot be adequately taken care of at home may apply for residential care services subsidised by the Government.
The SWD continued to subsidise the Opportunities for the Elderly Project run by community organisations to make home life a little more comfortable for elderly people. During the year, 271 programmes were subsidised by government grants amounting to $2.7 million.
Over the years, more than 1 million Senior Citizen Cards had been issued to elderly people in Hong Kong with which elders can obtain concessions, discounts and priority service at 14 534 outlets belonging to 8 081 companies, organisations and government departments.
Community Care and Support Services
At year-end, there were 214 centres for the elderly (including district community centres, neighbourhood centres and social centres), 120 elderly services teams (including integrated home care service teams, enhanced home and community care service teams, support teams for the elderly and a home help team), 51 day care centres or units for the elderly, and one holiday centre for the elderly. Support is also provided for their carers.
Residential Care Services
Subsidised residential care places for the elderly totalled 26 425 by the end of the year, including 6 258 subsidised self-care hostel places and home-for-the-aged places, 12 122 subsidised care-and-attention places, 1 864 subsidised nursing places and 6 181 purchased places in private residential care homes for the elderly (RCHES).
To meet the growing care needs of the elderly, the SWD commenced in June. 2005 a programme of converting in phases self-care hostel and home-for-the-aged places into care-and-attention places to provide a continuum of care. At year-end, a total of 1 220 care-and-attention places with continuum of care were created through the conversion programme.
The Government is committed to enhancing the quality of RCHES. The Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Ordinance and its subsidiary regulation provide for the regulation of RCHES through a licensing system. As the licensing. authority, SWD is responsible for licensing control, capacity-building and monitoring and enforcement. In order to enhance the inspection and monitoring of RCHES, the Licensing Office of Residential Care Homes for the Elderly (LORCHE) under the SWD has strengthened the manpower of the Health Inspectorate Team in 2006. It also
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