Hong Kong authorities may widen support to cover more younger elderly residents to bolster protection, the welfare minister has said, calling current efforts to identify at-risk seniors “just the beginning” as the city reels from two tragedies in a week.
Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han told the South China Morning Post that the government was mobilising all available resources to strengthen support for the elderly, but he noted the process would take time given the city’s large ageing population.
Explaining how a “high-risk” household was defined under a government initiative that used an interdepartmental database to identify vulnerable older residents, Sun said it generally referred to those aged 80 and above who lived alone or only with a spouse.
However, this age threshold meant a pair in their seventies involved in a recent tragedy fell outside authorities’ monitoring.
“What we are looking at, one is either the elderly people are living on their own or two elderly people are living together, and then we look at the age. Right now, we draw the line at age 80,” Sun said.
“It could be moved up or moved down. It’s not legally defined. We just want to start by using 80.
“Maybe later on we have more resources, we’re done with this group, we can move down [the age threshold], or we can move down to those with disability. We can set different criteria ... It’s just the beginning.”
After initial screening based on age and household composition, care teams would conduct home visits to assess factors such as frailty and mobility, and refer those with welfare needs to NGOs, he said.
“We are trying to prevent tragedy from happening as far as practicable,” Sun said. “Of course we want zero incidents.”
Hong Kong has once again been shaken by cases of elderly residents found dead at home after going unnoticed.
Last Wednesday, a 77-year-old man was found hanging, while his 71-year-old ex-wife was discovered lying on the floor of a flat at Po Tat Estate, a public housing complex under the Housing Authority in Sau Mau Ping.
Police said the man was believed to have killed the woman before taking his own life, having felt “hopeless” after their separation following years of marital conflict compounded by their son’s suicide.
Two days earlier, on May 4, an 89-year-old man and his 87-year-old wife were found dead in a flat at Lok Man Sun Chuen in To Kwa Wan, after a security guard reported a strange smell.
The couple was also not flagged as at-risk, as authorities had yet to extend coverage to estates managed by the Housing Society – the city’s second-largest public housing provider after the Housing Authority – including the one where they lived.
The government launched the initiative last July, initially covering Housing Authority estates, as part of broader efforts to support elderly residents and carers amid an ageing population and a rise in such incidents.
Sun said that about 2,400 elderly households had been identified as high-risk and in need of further support after care teams visited 35,000 households.
He added that the scheme would be expanded this year to include more building types, such as Housing Society estates and “three-nil buildings” – those with no owners’ corporation, no residents’ organisation and no property management company.
“Then we have to, based on that experience, see how we can move forward into private buildings,” he said.
Asked whether the roll-out was too slow and if targets should be set, Sun said reaching all those in need would take time.
“There is a process. There is no way for the care teams to visit everyone at the same time, it’s not possible. So there is a schedule,” he said.
Authorities were also testing smart home monitoring devices for at-risk elderly residents, including motion detectors that did not capture images to address privacy concerns, Sun said.
“We have to make sure that it works and most people are going to accept it and it is small enough and effective enough in a very small living space in Hong Kong,” he said. “There’s a lot of different technology issues we have to overcome, but we are willing to test it.”
He said a pilot scheme to install fall detectors in 300 high-risk households would be launched soon.
“Data set helps us narrow down our first visit ... and then with the care teams, this is an extra layer of observation and can decide whether or not they need extra service,” he said.
“Then we have extra tools with technology helping us monitor them on a continuous basis.”
He added: “We’re making use of different ways to help us cope with an ageing Hong Kong.”
The number of people aged 65 and above in Hong Kong is projected to nearly double from 1.45 million in 2021 to 2.74 million by 2046, when more than one in three residents will be elderly.
According to the 2021 population census, more than 188,000 people aged 65 and above live alone, while about 396,000 reside only with a spouse.
Chou Kee-lee, chair professor of social policy at the Education University of Hong Kong, urged the government to speed up efforts to identify vulnerable elderly across different types of buildings and to lower the age threshold for high-risk classification to 65 to widen the safety net.
He said vulnerable individuals were not limited to those living alone or only with a spouse but could also include those residing with other family members but facing conflict at home.
In assessing risk, Chou added, authorities should consider not only physical condition and self-care ability but also mental health, noting that many older residents suffered from loneliness and depression.
“The most important thing is not only to identify them as high-risk, but also to provide them with appropriate support or strengthen the social networks they can turn to for help when needed,” he said. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
