Since the inception of the Project on Elder Abuse Reconciliation Service (Project EARS), the Elderly and Health Core Business (ECB) has worked hand in hand with colleagues from our different core businesses, namely, the Professional Development and Quality Assurance, Service Development and Research, Family and Community in designing the practice guide for handling elder abuse by employing the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) approach. This multi-sector cooperation brought prominent results. An Integrated Reconciliation Counseling Approach has been developed and it will be the first of its kind in Hong Kong to handle elder abuse cases.

The Project also has full back up from the frontline staff from ECB and Family Networks. 10 senior frontline practitioners formed a strong support team for the Project.

In order to ensure a smooth try-out of our approaches as well as to guarantee quality service, a briefing session on the Practice Guide on Integrated Reconciliation Counseling Approach was arranged for our support team before the start of its direct service.

The session aimed to familiarize the support team members with the concepts of the ADR and Integrated Reconciliation Counseling Approach; the service flow of the Project with detailed guidelines on how to fill out different forms for record-keeping and administrative purposes; the flow of mediation and the distribution of work between project staff and the support team members.