Recently, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) announced that a re-engineering of community support services for elders would be implemented. The exercise helps to fulfill one of the Government objectives for elders, i.e., to assist elders age graciously with their community. In view of the fiscal stringency and challenges posed to NGOs due to the cessation of funding from the Community Chest to multi-service centers (M/Es) and social centers for the elderly (S/Es), this exercise also aims to increase the effectiveness and efficiency in the use of public resources.

The scope of the re-engineering covers a wide spectrum of support services for the elderly and that includes all S/Es, M/Es, home help, home care and meal services. The plan strives to provide a wide range of holistic care and support to the elderly citizens in order to actuate the concept of "continuum of care".

According to the SWD's information, starting from 1 April 2003, the existing 40 M/Es in HK will be upgraded as District Elderly Community Centers (DECCs) providing a full range of integrated support services to the elders living in the community. As for the 213 S/Es, 110 will be upgraded to become Neighborhood Elderly Centers (NECs) whereas 40 of them will be transformed into self-financing units. These units will be operated by the same NGO providing a variety of innovative elderly-related service such as, senior volunteers development centre, elderly learning centre, health care services, health promotion and wellness centre, human resource development centre for senior citizens, and IT learning cum social club for retirees, etc. Two of the S/Es currently operating in Mong Kok and Sau Mau Ping will be closed however, with the premises returned to SWD for alternative usage. The remaining 59 S/Es run by smaller NGOs that do not meet the financial criteria will continue to operate as S/Es. 138 Home Help Teams will also be upgraded to become Integrated Home Care Service Teams (IHCSTs) for serving the elders who are confined at home .

As for Hong Kong Christian Service, our only M/E - Wan Hon Multi-service Centre for the Elderly will be upgraded and be renamed as Wan Hon DECC. Among our four S/Es, Tsimshatsui Social Centre for the Elderly will be transformed to a self-financing unit aiming at fostering Life-long education for elders whilst the other three S/Es, namely Shun Lee S/E, Fortune S/E and So Uk S/E, will be upgraded to become NECs. On the other hand, all of our home help teams in Kwun Tong and Shamshuipo districts will be upgraded to become IHCSTs. In order to ensure a smooth transition from existing services to the upgraded services with expanded functions, a number of preparation works that include restructuring of staff, job induction and preparations of staff on new procedures and responsibilities, publicity on new services, liaison with stakeholders in the community and alike are now in progress. Looking ahead, we hope that the essence of the re-engineering exercise can be realized for the ultimate purpose of enabling our elders to lead a dignified and respectful life in a caring community.