Standardized Care Need Assessment Mechanism

for Elderly Services

In Hong Kong, the policy of Elderly Services is to provide a fulfilling life for the senior citizens who have contributed to society all their life time. From now on, elders who have applied for services such as residential care services which include home for the aged, care-and-attention home, nursing home or other community support services, have to undergo astandardized care need assessment. After the assessment, the Department is able to provide the most appropriate services to the applicants in accordance with their care needs.

The advantage of this mechanism is that it offers elders more choices on services and elders can avoid unnecessary and duplicated assessment during course of application. In this way, the best available service can be offered.

The assessor will pay a visit to the applicants. The assessor adopts a common assessment tool to assess the care needs of the applicants and then match them with appropriate services. The assessment tool also provides results on specific problems of elders facilitating earlier intervention. When carrying out an assessment based on the applicants’ individual circumstances, the assessor will identify their care needs and match them with appropriate services. She will look into the elder’s health status and his self-care ability.

Assessor, “Uncle Wai, can you take bath yourself?”

She will examine his physical environment to see whether they’re suitable for him. The assessor must also assess his cognitive ability. We will also assess his behaviour and mood.

Besides residential care services, we provide a series of community support services for the elders who still have promising health condition.

With the concept of ageing in place, allowing our senior citizens to live a fulfilling life in their own community, the Social Welfare Department provides a great variety of community support services for the elderly all over Hong Kong. Many elderly people have lived in the same area for years so they have friends there. If there’s enough community support and care services in the area, they’d rather live in their own homes. It’s their own patch, nothing beats that……

Now let’s look at these support services in detail:-

Home Help Service

Home Care Service

Enhanced Home and Community Care Service

Day Care Centre for the Elderly

Multi-service Centre for the Elderly

Support Teams for the Elderly

Social Centre for the Elderly

Carers’ Support Centre

Holiday Centre for the Elderly

Emergency Alarm System

For details, please call

Social Welfare Department Hotline: 2343 2255

Social Welfare Department Website: