Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ11: Family services
Following is a question by the Hon Albert Ho and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (July 5):
Question:
Early last month, two elderly men allegedly murdered their wives. One of the
victims was a woman in the Mainland married to a Hong Kong resident, and the
other had sought Police's assistance on numerous occasions. In this connection,
will the Government inform this Council:
(a) as the authorities have introduced a number of measures to implement the
recommendations made by the Review Panel on Family Services in Tin Shui Wai in
its report in respect of the Tin Shui Wai family tragedy which occurred in April
2004, whether the authorities have, in the light of these two cases, reviewed
these measures to identify possible areas for improvement;
(b) whether it will follow the practice of the United Kingdom by establishing a
mechanism for professionals to review incidents of domestic violence, with a
view to enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of the work done by various
parties to tackle domestic violence;
(c) among the persons coming from the Mainland to Hong Kong to join their
spouses, of the number of those who received marriage or family counselling
services last year, how the percentages of divorce or separation among these
persons compare to those of the persons of other categories, and whether the
authorities will consider strengthening the support for families involving
cross-border marriages; and
(d) of the number of retirees who received marriage counselling services last
year, whether the authorities will look into the pressure faced by the retired
elderly in relation to their livelihood, families, psychology and social life,
as well as the factors triggering domestic violence, and explore means to
improve support services?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) Since 2004, the Government has adopted enhanced measures and provided
additional resources to support and strengthen family functions and to tackle
family crisis. These include the addition of two teams of Family and Child
Protective Services Units (FCPSUs), increasing the manpower of social workers in
Integrated Family Services Centres (IFSCs) and FCPSUs, strengthening clinical
psychological support services and the support of refuge centres for women,
increasing the number of places of children's home and foster care, enhancing
public education on the prevention of domestic violence and training for social
workers and professionals, as well as launching of two 2-year pilot projects of
Batterer Intervention Programme etc. These measures have helped improve
government's services and support for victims of domestic violence.
In the current financial year, the Government has put in additional resources
and made more effective use of the community resources to strengthen family
education and launch a Family Support Programme to reach out to families that
have not sought help to address their problems and to assist them at an early
stage. The Government will continue to collaborate with various sectors to
enhance the prevention and handling of domestic violence.
(b) The Government notes that the United Kingdom (UK) is in the process of
setting up a Domestic Homicide Review mechanism. We will keep in view the
development and make reference to the UK's experience in developing the review
mechanism.
In Hong Kong, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) has proposed a review
mechanism to conduct post-event multi-disciplinary review of fatal child abuse
cases with a view to identifying improvement measures for prevention and
intervention. The SWD is in the process of setting up the review mechanism,
which is expected to commence operation in late 2006.
(c) Currently, the IFSCs across the territory provide a continuum of preventive,
supportive and remedial services for people in need (including new arrivals and
retired persons with marriage problems) and their families to assist them in
tackling their personal and family problems. Of the new/re-activated cases taken
on by the IFSCs in 2005-06, 1 043 cases are related to new arrival families (or
about 2.8% of the total number of new/re-activated cases), among which 177
involved marriage problems or relationship problems among the couples. However,
the SWD does not maintain separate statistics concerning the percentage of
divorce or separation among the service users.
(d) As mentioned above, the IFSCs provide marriage counselling to retired
persons. The SWD however does not maintain a breakdown of the number of such
cases. Furthermore, the Government has provided a safety net for the needy
elders through social security assistance and a range of heavily-subsidised
services (including public healthcare, elderly care and public housing) so as to
assist them in meeting their financial and daily needs. On the other hand, over
200 government-subsidised elderly centres across the territory provide a wide
range of services and activities for the elderly, which help them to widen their
social networks and integrate into the society. We believe that the above
services will serve the needs of and render appropriate support to the elderly.
The SWD will keep in view the situation of domestic violence and will make
adjustments to its services in accordance with the changing circumstances.
Ends/Wednesday, July 5, 2006
Issued at HKT 12:22
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