Community fall prevention project, a collaborated project organized by SSP DC Working Group on Medical and Rehabilitation Service, local hospital and non-government organizations to increase the awareness of fall risk amongst elderly, local residents and caretakers through screening and health talks. Volunteers were trained with risk assessment skills, environmental scan and fall prevention strategies to identify the fall risk of the elderly. 600 elderly were screened in 2005. For those with low to moderate risk of fall, exercise classes, home assessment by occupational therapist, balance assessment by physiotherapist were arranged to enhance their safety and lessen the risk of fall. For those very high risk elderly, they were referred to Fall Clinic of Caritas Medical Centre for further management. This served as a blueprint for the coming program in 2006. Emphasis would be made on education, community rehabilitation and outcome of the elderly after joining the program. |
Home safety promotion
Department of Health had developed promotion leaflets, posters and exhibition boards to educate public, elderly on home safety and prevention of injury. Moreover, regular health talks on home safety were organized by the Elderly Service Unit of Department of Health, local non-government organizations, general out-patient clinics and local hospital. In addition, Tai-Chi exercise was highly advocated by the Hospital Authority, Hong Kong to increase balance of the elderly to lessen the risk of fall.
Home repair and maintenance scheme
Both modernized buildings and aged residential buildings are found in Sham Shui Po. Within this district, there are 12,300 single elderly lived in, about 3.3% of the district population. Many of them were socially deprived, on comprehensive security social allowance for financial support and living in the aged residential buildings either public housings or private premises. The risk of fire, tripping, slip and fell would greatly increase if their homes were not properly maintained. Therefore, volunteers repair team from commercial sectors; non-government organizations provided free home repair services for them. SSP DC Working Group of Elderly Service, local non-government organizations jointly organized home repair and maintenance every year for the elderly. The team consisted of plumbers, electricians, painters etc. Repair work would be carried out after home assessment. By doing so, the elderly could live safely and comfortably in the community.
Road safety awareness
According to the injury data from AEIS of Caritas Medical Centre, traffic accident was the second common cause of AED attendance for this group of elderly age over 64. In addition to road safety awareness promotion, law enforcement by Hong Kong Police Force, Sham Shui Po District Road Safety Campaign Committee, SSP DC Working Group on Road Safety Publicity and local community partners also organized road safety campaign, carnivals, elderly drama competition regularly to increase elderly road safety awareness. Over 26,000 elderly, residents had joined the programs from 2002 to 2006.
Care of elderly with dementia and their care-taker
The programme was organized by SSP DC Working Group of Medical and Rehabilitation with local non-government organizations and was started since 2004. Its aim was to increase public awareness on the increasing numbers of dementia due to ageing population. A database was set up to monitor the elderly cognitive function and to identify the needy group and their caretakers for support and treatment. Over 350 demented elderly were registered. Besides, health talk on dementia was given to elderly, caretakers, non-government organizations workers, nursing home staff to increase the awareness. Over 750 people participated in the talks. An educational kit on care of demented elderly was issued to caretakers and community partners.
High risk elderly registry
The number of single elderly was 12,300 in SSP and the number of two elderly living together was 5,400 in year 2005. Many of them were frail and frequent admitted in hospital. In view of these, Caritas Medical Centre had initiated this high risk elderly registry project in year 2006 to provide community support to these elderly through medical and social collaboration. A new module ˇ§High Risk Elderly Patientsˇ¨ was created in the Clinical Management System (CMS) to capture the clinical details of high risk patients at the corporate level.
The potential benefits included:
˘w To track all admission / discharge records of patients in concern
˘w To keep a database of High Risk Patients
˘w To keep a database of different service receivers
˘w To alert the health care providers when receiving or discharging high risk patients
Up till September 2006, over 5,000 elderly were registered. About 2,000 telephone nursing consultations were given 24 to 48 hours after they were discharged from Medical and Geriatric Unit, Accident and Emergency Department. If they need medical support or social service, the nursing staff would refer the cases to concerned parties. With medical, nursing and community support for this community dwelling elderly, they could stay safely in the community and the unnecessary readmission rate could be lessened as much as possible.
Prevention of Elderly Abuse
The number of newly reported elderly abuse in Sham Shui Po to Social Welfare Department in 2005 was 25, 4.7% of the total number of cases (528) in Hong Kong. The figure might be under-reported as the victims did not know how to seek assistance or they were ashamed or scare to disclose the problem. The top three causes were physical abuse, financial abuse and psychological abuse. In view of the problem, some of the social service units serving elderly, provided public education on prevention of elderly abuse to enhance the elderly and their family members understanding on this problem. It also encouraged the elderly and their family members to seek early assistance in case of need. Besides, the government and non-governmental welfare units providing casework services would provide appropriate services for the elderly victims and their family members (including the abusers) to protect the elderly and to prevent the recurrence of elderly abuse. There were leaflets provided by Social Welfare Department to enhance the awareness of elderly and other citizens on the problem of elderly abuse, to prevent the occurrence of abusive incident, and to encourage victims of abuse as well as their family members and friends to seek assistance as early as possible so as to remedy the situations. 'Procedural Guidelines for Handling Elder Abuse Cases' was issued to provide reference materials and procedures for different organizations and personnel in handling suspected elderly abuse cases. |
