206 Social Welfare
community rehabilitation day centres, integrated community centres for mental wellness, and rehabilitation services for persons with visceral disability or chronic illnesses.
Residential respite services for persons with disabilities, occasional childcare service for pre-schoolers with disabilities and six resource centres for parents/relatives are also available. In addition, there are 16 social and recreational centres for persons with disabilities to encourage them to participate in community leisure activities.
Preparation Work for New Legislation to Regulate Residential Care Homes for Persons with Disabilities (RCHDs)
The Government introduced the Residential Care Homes (Persons with Disabilities) Bill into the Legislative Council on June 30, 2010 to regulate the operation of residential care homes for persons with disabilities (RCHDs) through a statutory licensing scheme.
Complementary to the proposed statutory licensing regime, the Government introduced in October 2010 a pilot Bought Place Scheme for private RCHDs to encourage the operators to upgrade service standards, increase the supply of subsidised residential care places and help the market provide more service options for persons with disabilities.
Financial Assistance for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Patients
The SWD administers the trust fund for SARS patients or families affected by this disease. The trust fund for SARS stopped accepting new applications on January 1, 2006. A total of 890 applications were approved, the cumulative payments for which amounted to over $180.14 million by the end of the year.
Medical Social Services
Medical social workers are stationed in public hospitals and some specialist clinics to help patients and their families with welfare needs. Such patients are given counselling, financial and other tangible assistance, as well as referrals to rehabilitation and support services to help them recover and reintegrate into society. The SWD strengthened the manpower of psychiatric medical social workers. Medical social workers dealt with around 181 600 cases in 2010.
Services for Offenders
The SWD discharges a number of statutory functions and provides community- based and residential services to help people who have committed crimes reintegrate into the community and become law-abiding citizens.
The probation service helped 6 690 offenders during the year. Probation officers assess and report to the courts on an offender's suitability for probation orders, and render supervision to those under the orders. The officers also prepare reports on long-term prisoners and petitioners for consideration for early release.
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