Care for the disabled knows no boundary

07 August 2016

On my official duty visit to Beijing last week, I called on seven ministries and two organisations and had exchanges with Hong Kong young people working in Beijing. The three-day trip was really rewarding. When I visited the China Disabled Persons’ Federation (CDPF), I met with its Chairperson, Madam Zhang Haidi, and introduced to each other the latest progress in promoting the rights of persons with disabilities and strengthening rehabilitation services on the Mainland and Hong Kong respectively with a view to boosting our bonding.

Madam Zhang said that since its foundation CDPF had a long and useful experience of exchanges with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government and established long-term co-operation on a project basis with many Hong Kong social service organisations. She also thanked the government and rehabilitation sector of Hong Kong for making every endeavour to support the rehabilitation work after the Wenchuan Earthquake in Sichuan.

Services for persons with disabilities on the Mainland have seen rapid development in various aspects in recent years. The Mainland and Hong Kong are both facing the challenge over the training of rehabilitation service professionals. Madam Zhang mentioned that, following CDPF’s strong advocacy, the establishment of a university specialising in rehabilitation had already been included in the outline of the National 13th Five-Year Plan.

In Hong Kong, to ease the shortage of healthcare professionals in the social welfare sector, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Social Welfare Department (SWD) have jointly run self-financed two-year master programmes in occupational therapy and physiotherapy since January 2012. To encourage graduates of these two programmes to work for the welfare sector, SWD provided non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with funding to offer tuition fee subsidies to students whom they have recruited while these students in turn must work for the respective NGOs for at least two years after graduation. The first two batches of students, 115 in total, graduated in January 2014 and January 2016 respectively. In 2016-2017, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and SWD are joining hands again to implement the third batch of master programmes in occupational therapy and physiotherapy, providing a total of 72 places.

The rehabilitation policy of the HKSAR Government seeks to assist persons with disabilities in developing their potential and build a barrier-free environment with a view to enabling them to enjoy full participation and equal opportunities in both social life and personal growth. The HKSAR Government has been increasing resources to strengthen support services for persons with disabilities, with overall recurrent expenditure on the relevant services surging over 80 per cent from $16.6 billion in 2007-2008 to $30.1 billion in 2016-2017.

The major areas of rehabilitation services in Hong Kong include: (a) prevention and early identification; (b) pre-school rehabilitation services; (c) day training and vocational rehabilitation; (d) residential care services; (e) community support services; and (f) transportation. I have shared on the new initiatives in recent years in some of my previous blog articles.

I sincerely hope that Hong Kong and the Mainland will keep up our joint effort in enhancing the well-being and betterment of life for persons with disabilities as well as fostering integration of able-bodied and disabled people.