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Social Welfare

A Support Programme for Employees with Disabilities provides employers with a one-off subsidy of up to $20,000 per employee with disabilities to procure assistive devices and workplace modifications to facilitate the employment and work efficiency of those employees. The programme also offers a maximum grant of $40,000 for a single assistive device that costs more than $20,000 and its essential accessories.

In 2016, there were 8,496 places in hostels and care homes providing residential care for persons with disabilities who were unable to live independently in the community, or whose families could not care for them adequately. Another 450 residential places were provided under a Bought Place Scheme (BPS) for Private Residential Care Homes for Persons with Disabilities (RCHDs). Care-and-attention homes for the aged blind had 825 places, while halfway houses and long-stay care homes had 1,509 and 1,587 places respectively for discharged mental patients.

Residential Care Homes for Persons with Disabilities

The department monitors the operation of RCHDS under the Residential Care Homes (Persons with Disabilities) Ordinance and helps improve their services by providing practice guidelines and staff training. Complementary measures such as the Financial Assistance Scheme for Private RCHDs and BPS for Private RCHDs encourage private RCHDs to upgrade their service standards and provide more service options for persons with disabilities.

Professional Support

Clinical psychologists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists render support services to persons with disabilities in rehabilitation day centres and hostels. The department provides speech therapy to children attending pre-school rehabilitation centres.

A range of community support services is available to persons with disabilities living in the community, including ex-mentally ill persons, and their families and carers. These include district support centres for persons with disabilities, home care for those with severe disabilities, an integrated support service for people with severe physical disabilities, a transitional care and support centre for tetraplegic patients, community rehabilitation day centres, integrated community centres for mental wellness, day care for people with severe disabilities, and rehabilitation for those with visceral disability or chronic illnesses.

Day and residential respite services for persons with disabilities, occasional child care services for pre-schoolers with disabilities and resource centres for parents and other relatives are also available. Social and recreational centres encourage persons with disabilities to take part in community leisure activities.

Through the Lotteries Fund, the department launched a two-year Pilot Project on Peer Support Service in Community Psychiatric Service Units in March and a 30-month Pilot Project on Strengthening Support for Persons with Autism and their Parents/Carers in April to enhance support for ex-mentally ill persons and autistic persons respectively.

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