During the Lunar New Year holiday, the Home Affairs Department organized home visits during the Chinese New Year. A group of high-ranking officials visited grassroots families in various districts to give gifts and congratulate them. The targets of their visits included many so-called "double-elderly families", and these "double-elderly families" often There are also many family caregivers.
The authorities stated that one of the goals of the activity was to "chat with the residents and learn about their daily life" and "send them warmth and blessings".
Of course, politicians need to go into the society to understand people's livelihood, but relying on gossip and daily life to send blessings is by no means enough to show the mind of "people's desires are always in my heart". Policy, prescribe the right medicine.
According to the government's press release, Chief Secretary for Administration Chan Kwok-kei, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Tsang Kwok-wai, and Secretary for Labor and Welfare Sun Yuk-han visited the elderly living alone and "double-elderly families" in North Point Healthy Village on New Year's Eve. The Financial Secretary Mayor Chen Maobo, Deputy Secretary for Financial Affairs Wong Wai-lun, Director of Education Bureau Cai Ruolian visited the "double-elderly family" in Youai Village, Tuen Mun on the first day of the new year. Deputy Secretary for Justice Zhang Guojun, Secretary for Home Affairs and Youth Affairs Mei Juan also visited the "double-elderly family" in Lok Fu Village, Wong Tai Sin on the second day of the Lunar New Year.
+1
It can be seen that the officials who visited the "double-elderly families" basically covered all relevant departments and bureau chiefs. Celebrate the Chinese New Year together.” I wonder if they can realize that for many family caregivers, a better gift should actually be a set of comprehensive support policies for caregivers?
No comprehensive support policy
In the middle of last year, the team of Polytechnic University submitted the report "Consultation Study on the Needs and Support of the Elderly and Disabled Carers in Hong Kong", and suggested "to formulate an overall policy framework centered on caregivers". However, support measures are still quite loose.
The authorities only promised to continue the respite services and financial assistance with multiple quotas or conditions, and failed to undertake more social responsibilities to improve the lives and experiences of caregivers.
In the past year, there have been a number of tragedies involving family caregivers. Before the Lunar New Year holiday, some organizations also released survey results pointing out that during the epidemic, most elderly family caregivers need to spend an average of more than 40 hours a week to take care of patients. Among them, retired or The unemployed spend an average of 60 hours, and the employed also spend an average of 27 hours. Their working hours are basically equivalent to a half-time job. It can be seen that taking care of their families has brought great pressure to them.
Families on the front lines still don't benefit
Under the lack of comprehensive and piecemeal policies, frontline caregivers are often unable to benefit from the existing measures.
Members of the Legislative Council Deng Jiabiao, Di Zhiyuan, and Lin Suwei recently visited a "double-elderly family" and found that the elderly family caregivers among them encountered the following situations one after another: the patient did not get along with the staff of the respite center and moved back, and the government made an appointment to deliver Meal services are not available, and because he has received CSSA, he can no longer apply for carer allowances. As a result, all existing supports are useless to him.
There are many similar cases in the society. The epidemic has worsened the plight of many caregivers in the past few years. However, the authorities have only set up hotlines and increased publicity recently, which can be said to have completely misplaced the focus of the problem.
Not calling for help does not mean that there is no need for help. The caregivers themselves are already too busy to find additional help. Therefore, the authorities should actively extend a helping hand to provide support instead of just providing channels for inquiry information .
Executive Council member Lam Ching-choi accepted a series of interviews with "Hong Kong 01" "Save the Caregivers" earlier, and mentioned that Hong Kong seems to have to wait for a "tipping point" to promote major policy changes, but if it really waits until the next time When the incident happened, it already represented another victim.
We hope that in the new year, we can see officials show new ideas and come up with new policies for caregivers, instead of causing more tragedies of caregivers due to insufficient support again.
01 Proposal｜Career services are not in place and comprehensive support is needed to do a good job in the ethics case of Tsz Lok Village｜The stress of caregivers comes from the lack of policies
