Latest news with #social workers
South China Morning Post
a day ago
- Health
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong carer hotline to scale up operations after handling 100,000 calls in 2 years
A carer support hotline commissioned by the Hong Kong government handled almost 100,000 calls in nearly two years since its launch, with operations set to be scaled up to meet growing demand. Advertisement Operated by the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, the 24-hour '182183' hotline provides emotional support and referrals to welfare services. It is staffed by more than 100 social workers, who work in shifts across 30 phone lines. Since its launch in September 2023, amid a spate of family tragedies involving stressed carers, the operator had handled 99,899 calls as of June 30 this year, according to Venus Ho Ka-yi, supervisor of the hotline centre. Venus Ho (centre) says the hotline can arrange in-home respite services. Photo: Nora Tam Most callers sought emotional support, followed by inquiries about services. The team also made 1,744 referrals, including 208 to respite centres, which Ho said was important for carers to buy time to hire a domestic helper or find a residential care home for their loved ones following hospital discharge. A carer, surnamed Lam, in her sixties, called the hotline early one morning in January this year during an emotional meltdown. She had spent the previous four days cleaning up after her 97-year-old mother, who, despite incontinence and mobility issues, refused to use nappies and insisted on going to the toilet unaided. Advertisement 'It was frustrating that she did not listen to me, and I broke down emotionally,' she said. 'I called the hotline asking for respite services, I would take any respite centre no matter how far it is, because I wouldn't be able to survive the night without it.' Lam recalled social workers telling her 'not to worry about money' and swiftly arranging a wheelchair, transport, and a care assistant to send her mother to a respite centre in Sai Wan.
South China Morning Post
5 days ago
- South China Morning Post
Call for Hong Kong to set up registry of filicide cases to reduce killings
Two years ago, a mother in Hong Kong was accused of suffocating her three children in their home in Sham Shui Po. Police said they found blood stains on a pillow and in the mouth and nose of one of the girls. The mother was arrested after she and her brother alerted the force. Last year, a debt-ridden father threw his seven-year-old son off the rooftop of a shopping centre before he jumped to his death, while the boy was critically injured. Hong Kong has been repeatedly shocked by cases centred on parents allegedly trying to kill their children, with at least three recorded each year from 2020 to 2024, according to a count of reports by the Post. Victims ranged from newborns to adult children who were intellectually or physically disabled. In interviews with the Post, experts in health and social work called on the government to set up a registry to document and identify patterns in these tragedies, so authorities could devise measures to prevent future cases.
