Newsflash

Morrison Hill Child Development Centre
Opening Ceremony

Our new integrated child development centre, Morrison Hill Child Development Centre (MHCDC) is located in Morrison Hill, Wanchai. The opening ceremony of the centre took place on 4 September. This special time was chosen in memory of the Rev. Robert Morrison, the American missionary who came to China two centuries ago. The location was also special because this was where the Morrison Memorial School was once located. Rev. Morrison's contributive spirit and passion to serve will surely be carried forward through our educational work. Rev. Lee Ching Chee, the senior missionary of London Missionary Society was the honorable guest to officiate at the ceremony.

MHCDC serves children between the ages of 0 to 6 with mild to severe grades of disabilities. Education, training and support services to both children and their families will be provided. We aim at maximizing children's developmental functioning, in terms of intellectual and motor skills, communication and language, independent living skills, social and play skills, as well as emotional and aesthetic development. We also aim at promoting parents' acceptance towards their children with special needs and facilitating the caretakers to train and stimulate their children.

Integrated service mode is certainly the service development trend in Hong Kong for it does enhance more flexibility in the manipulation of manpower and resources. As a result, better service quality and support can be rendered to assist children with special needs to develop their potential.

Since the launching of Small Group Home Service by the Hong Kong Christian Service in 1994 we have adopted the service approach of using the "home environment" to serve needy families. Starting from 2002, evaluation tools were designed to measure our service effectiveness. Based on our experience, we compiled the "Report on Study of Service Model and Effectiveness of Small Group Home Service" in September this year.

The report gave an account on how to put theory into practice in our Small Group Homes. Details on how to conduct service evaluation and the analysis of the service evaluation were also recorded. Implications of the study on the service could be summarized as follows: 1) Performance of teenagers, especially boys staying in Small Groups Homes was more fluctuating. They needed special attention from the staff; 2)The duration of stay in Small Group Homes could affect the children's performance. One could find regressions in those who stayed for two years or more; 3) Performance and input of front-line staff, being part of the environment, was an important factor in service effectiveness.

A sharing meeting was held on 11 September for colleagues in the field of residential child care service. We exchanged views and discussed the direction and betterment of service development.