Joining hands to promote holistic rehabilitation
7 April 2019
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Two weeks ago, I attended the 60th Anniversary Symposium and Workshops organised by the Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation to exchange views with a representative from the World Health Organisation and a host of distinguished local and overseas speakers on the theme of “New Perspectives on Holistic Rehabilitation and Social Inclusion towards 2030”.
The Government cares about the rights and interests of persons with rehabilitative needs. The policy objective of the Government is, put in simple terms, to help persons with disabilities (PWDs) develop their capabilities and provide a barrier-free living environment for them to enjoy equal opportunities and fully integrate into the community. The Government has continuously increased the overall recurrent expenditure for rehabilitation services and support for PWDs, the amount of which has more than doubled from around $16.6 billion in 2007-08 to around $33.9 billion in 2018-19. This reflects that we attach great importance to the well-being of persons with rehabilitative needs and PWDs.
According to a survey conducted by the Census and Statistics Department in 2013, there were about 578 600 PWDs in Hong Kong who had one or more of the following types of disability: restriction in body movement; seeing difficulty; hearing difficulty; speech difficulty; mental illness/mood disorder; Autism; specific learning difficulties; and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. It is worthy of noting that, due to population ageing and other factors, the overall prevalence rate of PWDs (expressed as a percentage of the total population of Hong Kong) increased from 5.2% in 2007 to 8.1% in 2013.
Moreover, a crude statistical assessment based on the above survey and relevant administrative records indicated that the total number of persons with intellectual disability in Hong Kong was likely to be in the region of 71 000 to 101 000 in 2013.
The Census and Statistics Department will launch a new round of surveys in the latter half of the year (2019) during a period of about one year to collect the latest information on PWDs and persons with chronic diseases. The survey results are expected to be released around the end of 2021.
To keep our rehabilitation services abreast of the times, the Government has entrusted the Rehabilitation Advisory Committee with the task of formulating a new Hong Kong Rehabilitation Programme Plan (RPP), which will set out the strategic directions and measures to address the service needs of PWDs at different stages of life. Subject to the progress of its remaining work and actual circumstances, the Rehabilitation Advisory Committee will submit its report on the new RPP to the Government by the end of this year (2019).
At present, the Government’s strategic directions for rehabilitation services and support measures for PWDs are formulated on the basis of their service needs at different stages of life, including the needs for pre-school rehabilitation, education, employment, community support and elderly support at key life stages.
First of all, regarding pre-school rehabilitation services, early identification and timely intervention are of paramount importance to the development of children with special needs. The Government has regularised the Pilot Scheme on On-site Pre-school Rehabilitation Services since October last year, increasing the number of service places from about 3 000 at the launch of the pilot scheme in 2015 to around 5 000 at present. Starting from October this year, the number of service places will further increase to 7 000. Under the scheme, on-site rehabilitation training is provided for children with special needs and professional support is rendered to teachers and parents.
The Government has taken positive actions to implement integrated education. Starting from the 2019/20 school year, an additional $800 million will be allocated each year for launching a series of enhanced measures to support students with special educational needs (SEN). Such measures include re-structuring the Learning Support Grant; implementing Intensive Remedial Teaching Programme in Primary Schools and Integrated Education Programme, under which additional permanent teaching posts and subsidies will be provided according to the needs of individual schools; and upgrading the post of Special Educational Needs Coordinator to a promotion rank for schools with a comparatively large number of students with SEN.
In addition, the Government will extend the Enhanced School-based Educational Psychology Service. Our target is to have about 60% of public sector ordinary primary and secondary schools provided with the service by the 2023/24 school year through enhancing the ratio of educational psychologist to school from between 1:6 and 1:10 to 1:4. The ratio will be enhanced to 1:6 for the remaining 40% of schools. Besides, starting from the 2019/20 school year, school-based speech therapist posts will be created in public sector ordinary primary and secondary schools in phases over three years to enhance the School-based Speech Therapy Services.
In respect of employment, the Government has joined hands with the Vocational Training Council to formulate a strategic plan to enhance the skills training, employment support and internship opportunities for students. The Work Orientation and Placement Scheme implemented by the Labour Department enhances the employability of PWDs through the provision of pre-employment training, as well as encourages employers to employ PWDs through the provision of an allowance. With the implementation of enhancement measures under the Scheme in September 2018, the maximum allowance payable to employers of PWDs who have employment difficulties has been increased from $35,000 to $51,000 per employee, and the maximum period of allowance payable has been extended from eight to nine months. The Government also offers grants to non-governmental organisations for setting up social enterprises, so as to create more employment and on-the-job training opportunities for PWDs.
On community support, District Support Centres for Persons with Disabilities (DSCs) provide one-stop community support services for PWDs and their family members and carers. The Government will gradually increase the number of DSCs from 16 at present to 21. Besides, the number of Support Centres for Persons with Autism will be increased from three to five and additional manpower will be provided. Meanwhile, the number of Parents/Relatives Resource Centres will be increased from 12 to 19 gradually, with a view to strengthening support for parents and relatives/carers of PWDs.
In view of the demographic changes in Hong Kong, the phenomenon of ageing of PWDs should not be overlooked. The Government introduced two four-year pilot schemes one each in February and March this year to provide outreach services for residents in private residential care homes for PWDs and private residential care homes for the elderly. These services include speech therapy services to assist ageing service users or those with severe disabilities in dealing with speech and swallowing problems.
To develop a barrier-free environment, the Government will examine and review the accessibility of the local community and living environment with a view to enhancing it in the light of overseas experiences.
Meanwhile, the Government continues to improve transport facilities and put in place a barrier-free transport system for PWDs. The Government Public Transport Fare Concession Scheme launched in 2012 enables PWDs to travel on public transport modes, such as buses and the MTR, at a concessionary fare of $2. In 2018, up to 159 000 passenger trips were made by PWDs each day under the Scheme.
On the other hand, Rehabus service is also important for providing transport service for PWDs who need to work, attend schools and receive medical treatment. The size of the Rehabus fleet has increased to 176 vehicles now, with the total number of user-trips exceeding 950 000 a year.
To build a barrier-free, caring and equal society for people with and without disability, cross-sector collaboration is required. The government, welfare organisations, business sector, academia and the community must pool their efforts and resources together in order to achieve this goal.
