Annual Report 2003-2004

OVERCOMING DIFFICULTIES SCALING NEW HEIGHTS

Chairman's Foreword

Another year has passed, and not a year which the people of Hong Kong would wish to remember.  The SARS outbreak of 2003 induced a major economic crisis whose effects, despite a recovery in the first quarter of 2004, are still being felt. The welfare sector has been particularly affected with the resources needed becoming increasingly difficult to find.  The Hong Kong Government, which supports the Society through its subvention which represents about 68% of the Society's revenue, the Community Chest and the Hong Kong Jockey Club have all had to trim their budgets, whilst receipts from donations have also come under strain.   Whilst we all hope for better times ahead, we must all do what we can, where possible, to conserve our resources and to use these as cost-effectively as possible.

Of particular concern is the Government's decision to phase out the Tide-Over Grant.  This means that staff salaries will be assessed at the mid-point of their respective salary scales with no additional funding in cases where more experienced staff have salaries which exceed that mid-point.  For the many agencies which have newly appointed staff, the mid-point assessment method will mean that their subvention in respect of staffing will exceed their requirements. However, for long-established agencies such as our Society, where the majority of staff are already at or beyond the mid-point, the subvention to cover salaries will be insufficient to meet the wages bill.  We shall, therefore, have to eat into our previous reserves if we wish to retain our dedicated, experienced staff.

Such are some of the difficulties which we face in the years ahead: but all is not gloom!

As I have stressed in previous years, the work of our volunteers is extremely important.  Care for the visually impaired is demanding and staff intensive.  So to increase staff: client ratios, should that become necessary, is likely to increase the risks of accidents unless certain activities are no longer undertaken.  We would not wish to curtail the range of activities which we offer our clients, and it is in such areas that volunteers can make a difference.  I should like to thank all those who have given and continue to give of their time, expertise and funds in helping the Society to continue its vital work for the visually impaired.  Any reading this who would like more information on offering their services as a volunteer should call the Chief Executive who will be only too delighted to discuss the possibilities with them.

The Chief Executive in her report has set out the main areas of activity for the 2003/04 fiscal year.  I shall not repeat these here.  However, it should be noted that although Hong Kong's visually impaired remain the focus of the Society's attention, we have also been able, with the help of trust funds, and corporate and individual donors, to make significant contributions towards helping the visually impaired in China.  For example, the Mobile Eye Treatment Centres donated jointly by the Society and by the Asian Foundation for the Blindness of Blindness, are able to offer training in China to local ophthalmologists who then undertake cataract and other surgery and treatment to people in rural areas. The work of volunteer ophthalmologists from Hong Kong in this regard is deeply appreciated.  It is also interesting to note that the Chinese Ministry of Health has now provided 12 Mobile Eye Treatment Centres, based on the Hong Kong model, principally to serve the western provinces.

A number of issues remain for the Society to consider in the months and years ahead.  These include: the redevelopment of the Factory for the Blind; the need to establish a centre on Hong Kong Island (our existing centres are located in Kowloon and the Western New Territories); the need to provide or increase the number of ocular examinations of primary and pre-school children; the need to establish additional parents' resource centres to cope with the growing demand; and to change the name of the Society to something reflecting more accurately its work in the 21st century. The Society's Council will actively pursue these issues, but the views of the Society's members are also encouraged.  Please feel free to tell us what you think.

I should like to thank Grace Chan and her staff for their commitment to the visually impaired during a very difficult year.  The additional burdens imposed by the SARS outbreak should not be forgotten, and I must stress that the high standards of our staff helped ensure that there were no SARS cases in any of the Society's premises.  Nevertheless we must all learn a salutary lesson from the SARS episode, and make sure that we are fully prepared to meet any other emergencies which might arise.

The input of the Hong Kong Government both in terms of funding and of advice has been of inestimable value.  The former Director of Social Welfare, Mrs Carrie Lam and Ms Ophelia Chan, her Assistant Director, have taken a keen interest in our work and I thank them for their personal help and guidance throughout the year.  We thank the Hong Kong Jockey Club and the Community Chest both of which have continued to support our work and we sincerely hope that they will be able to continue to do so in the coming years despite the difficult economic environment.

I have already referred to the work of our many volunteers, but I shall take this opportunity to thank them once again and urge them to continue to provide much needed care and support to our many clients. Members of the Society's Council and its sub-commitees are, with the exception of the Chief Executive, all volunteers and are to be warmly thanked for their dedication to the work of the Society during the year.

My thanks go particularly to our Honorary Legal Adviser and his Legal Panel for their work on a number of important issues all of which required carefully considered legal advice.  Hong Kong appears to be becoming more litigious, so it is likely that there will be more work in store for the Legal Panel in the years ahead.

2003/04 proved to be a difficult year, which with discipline and commitment we have been able to weather.  The future looks brighter, but we must all be prepared for sudden squalls and thunderstorms. However, I have confidence that, with the support of the community, we shall be able to continue to serve our clients with high quality services in the years ahead.

Clive Oxley, OBE, ED

Chairman

Director's Report

The fiscal year 2003/04 is a year of consolidation for the Society.  As the Hong Kong Community was recovering from the impact of the SARS epidemic, the Society was preparing for more difficult times awaiting us ahead. The Tide-Over Grant is going to expire with effect from 1 April, 2006. The Society will have to find means to support the extra funding in order to keep the experienced staff who are crucial in any quality service programme. Two of our long time major funding resources, the Community Chest and the Hong Kong Jockey Club, are revising their funding application formulae and we have to be prepared for the changes through initiating innovative and valuable projects with special attention paid to cost effectiveness.

Despite these difficulties, we are optimistic with our efforts to reach new milestones in our services provision.  The support and generosity of many of our good friends, members, and the community at large, the dedication of our qualified staff team, and the leadership of our Council are the basis of our optimism.

Our friends have continued to give their approval of our services through unreserved and generous support.  As a result, we are able to continue our effort to improve our facilities, service quality and efficiency, and community participation.

In 2003/04, the Society received a general donation of $1,370,630, which was 130% higher than the amount $591,105 received for 2003.  Our Charity Walk donation raised more than $1.1 million to help fund the operation of our Parents Resource Centre for Visually Impaired Children and the purchase of ophthalmic equipment for the Vision Screening Bus. The concept of the sighted and visually impaired working together is also promoted through that event. Compared with last year, sales of the Factory for the Blind increased almost 19% to $13,759,879, despite economic downturn and decrease in government orders for filing tags.  In our General Eye and Low Vision Centre, a new Phaco-emulsification machine was installed to increase quality and capacity of our cataract surgical services.  Two advanced low vision devices, the Mobilux Telescopes and Beecher Telescopes, were purchased with generous support from the van Zuiden Charity Trust to provide better choices for people with low vision. The new Mobile Vision Screening Bus was put into service in December 2003 to provide vision screening to kindergarten students, older adults, and persons with mental and physical disabilities to prevent them from acquiring permanent visual disabilities. As at 31 March, 2004, more than four hundred kindergarten students and elderly were served during the fiscal year.  With the acquisition of the TIGER Professional Embosser that could produce different height of dots according to darkness of the shades directly from scanned images stored in the computer, the tactile diagram production capabilities of the Centralised Braille Production Centre is greatly enhanced.  We are able to produce more sophisticated and advanced books with diagrams in an efficient manner.

Scope and quality of services provision continued to improve. The completion of the Digital Voice Library in the Communication Department enables our visually impaired readers to access information in real time via telephone network or the Internet.  It is a great breakthrough in information barrier and one step forward toward equal participation.

The introduction of a new ball game, "Showdown", for visually impaired persons at the Rehabilitation Centre helps improve physical education of our trainees.  The expansion and renovation work of the Beauty Massage Centre commenced in December 2003.  By the time of writing this report, the Centre has been opened and is providing comprehensive beauty massage and spa services, with corresponding training facilities.

A new Client Information System was designed to allow faster retrieval of client information in the Residential Services Division.  The Deaf-Blind Training Manual was published in May 2003 together with the CD-ROM on Tactual Sign Language, thanks to Mr and Mrs Poon Tak Pong on their generous donation. Two Workshops on the Use of Tactual Sign Language were held, in collaboration with the Ebenezer Training Centre and the Caritas Lok Yan School.  A total of 110 participants attended the first workshop and 56 were enrolled in the second workshop which focused more on professional training conducted by the two deafblind experts from the United States

Volunteers play a vital role in our services provision. They participate as book readers and transcribers of the Centralised Braille Production Centre; as escorts, recorders and helpers in the Communication Department; as activity organizers, visitors, and helpers in the Homes of the Residential Services Division.  We have developed a volunteer honouring system to show our deep appreciation to our volunteers. This year, 71 volunteers attended the volunteer training seminar organized by the Residential Services Division. Their contribution will be recorded in a volunteers' handbook and recognized biannually in our volunteers' appreciation events.

Internationally, the Society continues to play an active and vital role in the prevention of blindness and enhancing opportunities for people with visual impairment.  The Vision 2020 Low Vision Resource Centre (LVRC) was set up at the General Eye and Low Vision Centre to make available quality low vision devices and assessment equipment to low vision service providers in many developing countries at greatly reduced cost to benefit many people suffering from low vision. This Centre is set up under the recommendation of the World Health Organisation Low Vision Working Group and the Task Force of the Vision 2020 - The Right to Sight, with generous donations from Christoffel-Blindenmission, Foundation Dark & Light, Sight Savers International and the Society.

The Society has been active and persistent in expanding educational opportunities for visually impaired children and young adults in China, through organising training courses and seminars, upgrading braille production facilities and establishment of education resource centres for integrated education of visually impaired children.  During the year under review, we successfully solicited funds with plans to start education resource centres at the Nanjing School for the Blind and Chang Chun University in China.  When the Centres commence operation in October and December 2004 respectively, we envisage that visually impaired students will be able to study in normal classes at a regular university with their sighted peers, at courses of their own choice. More than 2000 visually impaired children of the Jiangxu Province will benefit from the project as they will be able to study at regular schools through resource support from the Provincial Education Resource Centre based in Nanjing, thanks to the Drs Richard Charles & Esther Yewpick Lee Charitable Foundation.

Funds have been sought from the Christoffel Blindenmission to set up a National Education Resource Centre at the Qingdao School for the Blind. When completed in September 2005, resource support will be rendered on national level to the visually impaired students studying in primary and secondary schools in China.

We have made our best effort to continue to expand the scope and improve quality of our services in the face of the SARS epidemics aftershock.  In the coming years, we have plans to organize two training courses: the National Focal Persons Training Course on Low Vision and a Lions-WHO Childhood Blindness Training Course on Low Vision with the World Health Organization Low Vision Working Group for a total of 46  representatives coming from 29 countries in the coming year.  The courses will help increase global awareness on needs of people suffering from low vision. We are also actively preparing for the organisation of the 12th International Mobility Conference to be held in 2006 in Hong Kong.  Three to four more Mobile Eye Treatment Centres will be constructed in the coming year to enable annually more than 10,000 poor cataract patients living in remote areas in China to have their eyesight restored annually.  These projects will help further promote Hong Kong as a benevolent community that extends her kindness not only to the needs of its own people with disability, but also to people of the global community.

Following are the highlights of the services of the four Divisions of the Society:

Finance & Administration Division

General Financial Situation

This was the third year the Society had opted for the Lump Sum Grant.  For the financial year ended 31 March 2004, the Society had recorded a surplus of $6,597,825 including Tide-Over-Grant (TOG) of  $3,794,097. The Society was able to control the expenditure for the subvented units so that the entire TOG could be saved, bearing in mind that TOG was only an interim measure and would not be available after 2005/06.  Excluding TOG, the surplus for the financial year was $2,803,728 which is a satisfactory surplus.  In accordance with the requirement of the Social Welfare Department Lump Sum Grant Manual, the cumulative unspent lump sum grant of three years at a total value of $12,164,200 had been transferred from the General Fund to a "Reserve from Lump Sum Grant". A new service unit, the Low Vision Resource Centre (LVRC) was established on 25 July 2003 and the first year operating surplus of LVRC was $816,956 including a donation of $778,940 for the setting up. Fee income from some service units were affected by the outbreak of SARS at the beginning of 2003/04, but most units were able to catch up the drop in business at the latter part of the year.  The Society, as a whole, continues to be in a healthy financial situation .

No Flag Day was allotted in 2003/04, instead a Charity Walk was successfully held in November 2003 to raise funds for the operation of the Vision Screening Bus and the Parents Resource Centre for Visually Impaired Children.  The income was over $1.2 million whereas expenditure was $126,446 resulting in excess of income over expenditure of $1,112,212.

Accounts Department

The development of a new Financial Management System funded by the Lotteries Fund is in-progress. Owing to manpower turnover of the consultants, the live-run date of the system has been changed from 1 April 2004 to 1 September 2004. Different financial strategies of cost control, in particular, on Personal Emoluments were performed to cater for the impending financial hardship due to a 2.5% cut in SWD subvention in the financial year 2004/05. In addition, in order to maintain better internal control over dues & fees such as cash collection of the General Eye and Low Vision Centre, surprise inspections of cash on hand at the reception counter and optical dispensing service are conducted regularly to ensure all collected fees matched with the computer records.

During the year, the Accounts Department is responsible for co-ordinating the receipt and the donation boxes for public subscription at the Charity Walk and preparation of the required audited account as required by the Social Welfare Department.

Administration Department

BUILDING REPAIR & MAINTENANCE

During the year under review, the Administration Department has overseen a number of projects relating to building repair and maintenance. They included relaying of water proofing membrane, and improving lighting at the car park, renovation of toilets, replacement of the Central air-conditioning Chiller Plants and installation of fencing on the roof top. It is pleased to see that the above facilities and equipment have been replaced after they are in service for 18 years. From now on, the Society is able to provide a more comfortable and safe working and living environment for our staff and residents. The Department also assisted in renovation projects of other departments such as renovation of the studios of the Communication Department and the extension of the Health Massage and Treatment Centre.

PROJECT COORDINATION

Same as in previous years, the Administration Department has played a role in assisting various programmes and functions of the Society such as the Fund Raising Films Premiere at the Convention Centre in May 2003, the Charity Walk at Kowloon Park in November 2003, opening ceremonies, Christmas parties for the Residential Homes, the Society's Annual General Meeting, staff meetings, training sessions and graduation ceremonies.

HEALTH HYGIENE AND PREVENTIVE MEASURES

During the outbreak of SARS last year, the Department undertook to strengthen the sanitation of public areas, corridors, handrails of staircases and passenger lifts every two hours. Moreover, other preventive measures such as purchasing disposable hand towels; distributing face masks and placing sterilized carpet at the main entrances have been implemented so that the chance of our staff, visually impaired members and residents being infected could be minimized.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT

In order to strengthen the awareness against corruption and have a better understanding of the anti-corruption legislation, staff of the Department attended the talks on Guidelines for Corruption Prevention organized by The Hong Kong Council of Social Service and shared the information with all Heads of Departments at the Chief Executive-  Directors-Department Heads Meeting. Furthermore, staff of the Administration Department also participated in external seminars on Purchasing and Supply so as to better equip our knowledge related to central purchasing of office supplies.

VISITORS

During the year under review, the Department received a total of 638 visitors who came from different local and overseas organizations. Our honourable visitors, to name a few, included Mr. Tang Kwok Wai, Director of Social Welfare; Mr. Robert Footman, Commissioner for Transport; Mr. Kirk Horton and Ms. Barbara Mcletchie from Perkins School for the Blind of the United States; Mr. Robert Tham of Sarawak Society for the Blind Kuching; Members of Beijing Disabled Persons Federation, Chairman of Hubei Disabled Persons Federation, Director and Inspector of Qingdao Municipal Education Bureau, Professor Han and doctors from Tongji Hospital. We hope that by showing visitors the various services of our Society, the general public could have a better understanding about the needs and abilities of the visually impaired.

Factory for the Blind

SALES

The outbreak of SARS has affected the business of the Factory in early 2003/2004.  However, the Factory for the Blind managed to catch up its business in later months and achieved quite good sales results during this difficult year.  The total sales for 2003/2004 is $13,759,879, which represents an increase of 18.32% compared to that of previous year.

Regarding individual Production Sections, the Filing Tags Section has recorded a 36% drop while Sheltered Workshop also recorded a 16% reduction in sales revenue.  On the other hand, other sections in the Factory has shown a positive increase in sales.  The Braille/Tactile Products Section has the largest increase of 283% while the Paper Box Section and Sewing Section have recorded satisfactory growth of 25% and 4% respectively.

THE FUTURE OF THE FILING TAGS SECTION

The major customer in this Section is the Hong Kong SAR Government. The main contract was concluded in March 2004, although for some delivery, time extension has been arranged with the Government Logistics Department to extend until August 2004.  Uncertainty still lies ahead in 2004/2005 as the HKSAR Government is planning to include this item in a combined open tender of 45 stationery items.  Restructuring of the Section may become inevitable when the open tender result is concluded.

BRAILLE / TACTILE PRODUCTS SECTION

This Section which was established in July 2000 and after three years of research and development managed to achieve significant growth in its business this year.  In August 2003, the Factory has successfully won an open tender for the Lingnan University Campus Barrier Free Access Improvement Project. This project included Tactile Guide Paths, Braille & Tactile Signages and Tactile Maps.

For product development, the Factory has teamed up with the Environmental Advisory Service (EAS) Unit and the Polytechnic University to develop Solar Energy Powered Tactile Map for outdoor application.  The prototype is planned to be installed in Lingnan University Project later on trial basis.

In January 2004, The Van Zuiden Charity Trust has approved a donation for a Milling Machine, Precision Grinding Machine, Pad Printer and Silk Screening Equipment amounting to $148,360 for the Factory. These machines helped to improve Braille/Tactile Products Section production capacity and hence generate more employment opportunities for the disabled workers. With these new equipment the Factory can manufacture more tactile and signage products in the market.

PIANO TUNING

Effective 2003, we have secured a two-year contract for the piano tuning service with the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. The provision of this new service has generated a number of job opportunities for the visually impaired.

The Factory for the Blind has always considered safety as one of the most important objectives in the entire Factory operation.  Effective September 2003, we have implemented a series of Safety Improvement Programme including Inter-locking switch for the machineries and Guard Fencing to cover the operations area.  This safety programme was divided into four separated Phases. Phase One to Three were completed by March 2004. The Phase Four is planned to be completed by the end of August 2004.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT

In order to maintain a high standard service to our clients, we have committed ten hours of training to each staff in 2003 to upgrade their safety awareness and factory operation standards. These training included attending a job skill related seminar organized by the Social Welfare Department (SWD) and safety training courses organized by the Labour Department.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

During 2004-05, Factory has applied to SWD for the Enhancing Employment of People with Disabilities through Small Enterprise funding to further enhance our Braille/Tactile Products Section with additional machineries and equipment which will help the Factory to launch a number of new product lines including souvenirs and tooling fabrications and widen the range of stainless steel singage and tactile products. This enhanced development is expected to generate more than five job opportunities for the disabled workers.

Rehabilitation Division

Rehabilitation Centre

The aims and objectives of the Rehabilitation Centre are to provide comprehensive rehabilitation programme for visually impaired people aged 16 and above. Persons undertook the training would be better equipped with independent living skills. Two modes of training are provided, namely centre - and community-based training, the latter being catered for those who could not come to the Centre for training because of health, transportation or other prevailing reasons.

In November 2003, a trip to the Victoria Peak was organised and sponsored by the Standard Chartered Bank Engaging People Programme as one of the community activities.  Engaging People was an SCB training programme for its managers.  The activity was attended by SCB managers around the world, including Bangladesh, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, UK, Taiwan, Hong Kong and some countries of the Middle East and Africa.  It was truly an international and special event, the first for the Centre since its establishment in the early 1970's and the best opportunity for all participants to share life experiences, cultural and ethnic customs, etc.

On 24 October 2003, a variety programme was organised in celebration of the White Cane Day of 15 October, which was originated in the United States in the 1930's. The purposes were to encourage the visually impaired to develop and make use of independent traveling skills by using a white cane, educate the public and advocate for the Right of Way of the visually impaired.

A new ball game for visually impaired persons called Showdown was introduced to Hong Kong.  Developed and manufactured in Sweden, this game was an interesting sport and useful for improving physical education of our trainees.

The Centre was as active as ever in organising good social, recreational and educational programmes to enhance the well-being of trainees. 177 trainees, old trainees and their friends and family members participated in the Charity Walk 2003 of the Society. Tom Lee International Art Society sponsored $10,000 for the Centre Christmas Party, therefore more old trainees were entertained.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Three O&M instructors, including two senior ones, were assigned to take part in the electronic audible traffic signals quality assurance team of the Transport Department to provide leadership, technical support and advice relevant to orientation and mobility, known as O&M, of the visually impaired, with respect to the application of audible traffic signals in particular.  The project commenced in October 2003 with the aim to further improve performance of the eATS.

The Centre participated actively in meetings and projects especially those dealing with barrier free access for the visually impaired organised by government departments and transport operators, including the Transport Department, the Mass Transit Railway Corporation, Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation, bus companies, etc.  The Centre also arranged and co-ordinated trainees to take part in evaluating new facilities and installations, such as tactile guide-paths and other access facilities in government buildings and public areas, etc.

The Centre continued to play an active role in public education on awareness of visually impaired persons. 12 Sighted Guide talks were conducted for about 1,000 students of primary and secondary schools, universities as well as adults in community and social services centres, etc.  A series of educational programmes were organised for primary and secondary schools at the Shamshuipo district, the aim of which were to promote the understanding of the visually impaired and improve communication with them.  The students were impressed by the sharing of our trainees.

Career Support and  Development Centre

The Society has been playing a leading role in creating employment opportunities for the blind and visually impaired since it was founded in 1956.  By consolidating social work and adaptive technology, the Career Support and Development Centre was established in October 2000 to provide job assessment, placement, follow-up, vocational counselling and training, information as well as training on adaptive technology and equipment.  The aims and objectives of the Centre are to help visually impaired people overcome difficulties at work, in education and daily living so that they could develop their potentials and contribute to the society as a whole.

Supported by the Community Chest, the Employment Service Unit was in operation since September 1990 in another department of the Society before the Centre was established.  The Centre also joined the Supported Employment programme of the Social Welfare Department since October 2001.  Despite economic difficulties that existed in almost all sectors of the society as a whole, 31 visually impaired persons were placed in open employment by the Centre in the year under review.

The 8th Massage Training Course for the Visually Impaired was completed in November 2003.  Seven trainees graduated, completing a comprehensive syllabus of basic Chinese and western medicine, anatomy, pathology, physiology, massage techniques, and a three-month supervised field practicum which was financed by the Employees Retraining Board.  All graduates successfully found employment in massage centres.

The third phase of IT Awareness Programme for People with Disabilities, sponsored by the Social Welfare Department, was completed in September 2003.  A total number of 260 visually impaired persons were trained.

From June to August 2003, the Centre and the Vocational Training Council jointly organised the "Foundation Course of Career Putonghua for the Visually Impaired", the aim of which was to enhance participants' Putonghua communication abilities in existing jobs or job hunting.

In the past year, over 12,100 users have been recorded using the various services of the Centre.

Communication Department

The Communication Department provides information services to people with visual impairment in Hong Kong.  Its objectives are as follows:

-- To provide a well-equipped braille and talking book    library for the visually impaired. 

-- To meet the cultural and recreational needs of the visually impaired. 

-- To apply the latest recording technology possible to produce talking books. 

-- To recruit and co-ordinate volunteers to assist        visually impaired members in daily living, such as       escorting, tutoring, etc. 

BRAILLE AND TALKING BOOK LIBRARY

Established in 1965, the Braille and Talking Book Library is the only public library for the visually impaired in Hong Kong.  In March 2004, it had a readership of 2,100, a collection of 10,000 titles and a variety of magazines.

With a grant from the Lotteries Fund for Business Improvement Project, a Digital Voice Library for the Visually Impaired, a fifteen-month project and believed to be the world's first of its kind, was completed in March 2004.  This highly automated system was capable of delivering reading materials in audio format via telephone network or the Internet so as to cater for the reading needs of the visually impaired community.  The feedback from users were favourable that the system being extremely useful and beneficial because it succeeded in breaking their information barriers and giving them equal opportunities in access to real-time online information.  In addition, with this system, our Library could provide fast and efficient services to the visually impaired.

In November 2003, a small gift-shop was set up at the Library for the benefit and convenience of our users.  Items for sale included little ornaments, hats, bags, purses, stuff-toys, cushions, music-boxes, CD-albums, etc.  This new service turned out to be rather popular among members.

MUSIC LIBRARY

The Music Library was set up in November 1993.  In March 2004, its collection were over 2,800 compact discs and 10,100 cassette tapes.  Thanks were due to the Sunnyside Club which made available a grant in November 2003 for enrichment of the collection.  The Music Appreciation Centre of the Library proved to be popular among members during the year under review.

CD-ROM LIBRARY

The CD-ROM Library was established in 1996.  In March 2004, the collection were over 4,200 CD-ROM's/VCD's and various video tapes, covering a wide range of subjects.  This Library has been well used by the visually impaired since its establishment. With the support from the Sunnyside Club, it was possible to enrich the collection especially for the interest of young members.

PROFESSIONAL LIBRARY

Established in 1986, the aims and objectives of the Professional Library were to provide reference materials relating to visual impairment for both the staff of the Society and other professionals on special education, adaptive technology, rehabilitation, vocational training, low vision, prevention of blindness, etc.  The Library currently has a collection of over 1,200 titles and various types of periodicals.  During the year under review, about 2,000 visits to this service unit were recorded.

TALKING BOOK PRODUCTION STUDIOS

During the year under review, the Talking Book Production Studios produced 148 titles and some magazines.  We were most grateful to the many dedicated volunteer readers for their great work.

With a donation, the Studios were renovated in the summer last year and were now more professional and better acoustics.  The conversion of popular cassette talking books into special CD-ROM format was almost completed.  In March 2004, around 1,100 titles have been converted.

VOLUNTEER REFERRAL SERVICE

The Department continued to play an important role in recruiting volunteers to assist in recording talking books and serving visually impaired library members. During the year under review, hundreds of cases were recorded of clients taking advantage of individual or group volunteer assistance in brailling, tutoring, escorting, personal documents handling, etc.  Thanks were due to hundreds of dedicated volunteers who have helped to make this service a great success.

The Centralised Braille Production Centre

When it was appointed by the then Education Department of the Government to be the operating agency for braille production in the whole of Hong Kong in 1986, the Society had, in the same year, established the Centralised Braille Production Centre (CBPC) with the aims and objectives to meet the reading needs of the visually impaired in Hong Kong by producing materials in both Chinese and English braille which is a touch-reading system for the blind invented by a Frenchman, Louis Braille (1809 - 1852) who was blind himself. 

As information of all kinds are available in large volume at instantaneous speed today, compounded by the fact that more visually impaired persons are pursuing higher education and professions, the Centre clearly undertakes an important mission in the dissemination of information among the blind community which is vital for them to keep abreast of the society as a whole.  Since its inception, CBPC had managed to meet about half of the annual demand.  In the year under review, the output of master braille pages was about 189,700 master braille pages, while the overall production (including copies) numbered 594,000 sheets. CBPC received an atypical increase in Mathematics and Science textbook applications for the year and the number of tactile diagram masters produced doubled to more than 15,000 sheets.

To handle the large number of diagrams, it was fortunate that CBPC has obtained a Tiger Professional embosser that could emboss finer dots of non restricted array and directly from Microsoft Windows. CBPC has been looking for years ways and means to modernise the manual tactile diagram making procedure.  Many softwares and techniques were tried but none was found feasible at an affordable cost.  This acquisition turned out to be a major and most welcome technology breakthrough in braille production in recent years.  This embosser, just released in March 2003, not only can print from any programmes under Windows, its 3D printing feature, ie, print dots to different height depending on degree of blackness, provides the essential element that allows embossing shaded area, together with lines and braille with recognisable difference.  In fact, without it, CBPC would certainly not be able to finish all the textbooks on time with the exceptional amount of tactile diagrams required.

Both the Chinese and English OCR programmes, which have been in use for years, were upgraded for better accuracy and compatibility with systems of today.

Apart from regular braille transcription services, CBPC also provided webpage, graphic and booklet design support to some of our Society's functions like the "Happy Go Lucky" charity gala premiere and the Charity Walk fund raising programme.

In addition to reference and textbooks of primary, secondary and tertiary academic levels, which have been regular and essential items among CBPC production, the Centre had produced the following in the year under review:

Cantonese:

‧ 高級程度會考試卷節錄

‧  中學會考試卷節錄

‧ 展能加油站

‧ 殘疾人士公共交通指南

‧  中醫診斷學教學大綱、中醫基礎理論教學大綱、中醫基礎理論筆記

‧ 內科按摩學病例共十三種 ─ 中風、消渴、咳嗽、感冒、頭痛、失眠、胃痛、泄瀉、便秘、      腰痛、痹證、呃逆、耳鳴耳聾

‧  預防非典型肺炎指引

‧  進出口條例、玩具及兒童產品安全條例、商品 說明條例、應課稅品條例及版權條例

‧  2003年鄉村一般選舉、2003年鄉村居民代表選舉

‧  觸摸地圖

‧  中英詩選

‧  舊約導論

‧  使用電腦工作的指南

‧  使用顯示屏幕設備的安全指引

‧  二OO四年日曆

At present, text is processed and reproduced in braille in the three ways described below:

Keyboard Input - Paid Braille Production Officers (BPO) copy the text with personal computers and then transcribe into braille.  This is a time-consuming, but most commonly used method at our Centre.  With visually impaired BPOs, they relied on volunteers to read out the book content for them to type. 

OCR System Input - Apply a scanner and OCR system to feed text into the personal computer.  This technique is good for those materials that have fine printing quality and suitable fonts etc.  This method also enables staff or volunteers with no braille knowledge to help in book production.

File Transfer - Obtain data directly from the original source, e.g., a publisher.  Texts can be stored on media like a floppy diskette, or transmitted from the owner's computer.  This is an efficient method but less than 10% of our books were completed using this method.

Health Massage and Treatment Centre

In Chinese medicine, organs of a human being and their functions are governed by over 400 acupoints and more than a dozen meridians.  Systematically stimulating appropriate points as such would cause corresponding functions to regulate, thus improving the conditions of a patient without the use of any medicine.  The Society operates two health massage and treatment centres, both of which recruited visually impaired masseurs and masseuses graduated mainly from our own comprehensive training programme.  The S. K. Yee Health Massage and Treatment Centre at the Headquarters, opened in April 1992, and the Bernard Van Zuiden Health Massage and Treatment Centre in Tuen Mun in August 1998, have the following aims and objectives:

1) To increase employment opportunities for the blind and visually impaired and let them fully demonstrate their expertise and potentials so as to achieve the goal of creating mutual benefits for themselves as well as the society as a whole.

2) To educate the public on awareness of abilities of visually impaired people.

3) To gain revenues to finance on-going massage training courses for beginners and advanced training programmes for people already practicing in the trade.

In December 2003, renovations of the extension of the Centre, covering an area of about 250 square metres vacated by the Centralised Braille Production Centre, were commenced for building a Beauty and Massage Centre to provide regular massage, beauty therapy, foot reflexology and essence oil spa services. A training room with capacity of more than 30 persons were also available to conduct interest courses in massage, beauty and aromatherapy to further promote the goodness of our services.

With the support of the Social Welfare Department's "Enhancing Employment of People with Disabilities through Small Enterprise" project, the Mobile Massage Team was set up in December 2002 to provide customer-based massage service to clients in corporations, clubs, elderly homes and individual residences, so as to further promote massage for the public and create more job opportunities for the visually impaired.  As at March 2004, districts served by our Mobile Massage Team included Central, Tai Hang and Kennedy Town on Hong Kong island; Kowloon Tong, Hung Hom, Lam Tin , Tseung Kwan O and Diamond Hill on Kowloon side, and Shatin, Ma On Shan, Tai Po, Sham Tseng, Tsuen Wan, Tin Shui Wai, Yuen Long, Tung Chung in the New Territories etc, and the total number of service locations increased to about 20.

From April 2003, Hong Kong was badly affected by "SARS", the number of clients and service hours in 2003/2004 fell by about 4.3% (11,636) and 7.9% (15,182) respectively when compared with the previous year. The economic conditions in Hong Kong began to improve in 2004, and a number of promotional activities in the form of health talk, massage demonstration and leaflet distribution were organized by our Centres to promote all massage related services.  Furthermore, the scope of services would be enhanced when the Beauty and Massage Centre begins to operate, business is expected to pick up gradually in the coming year.

Research & Development Division

Parents Resource Centre for Visually Impaired Children

The Parents Resource Centre for Visually Impaired Children was established in August 1998. Up to date it is still the only resource centre of its kind in Hong Kong that provides on-going support to families with visually impaired children. The direct services and community education programmes provided by the Centre facilitate the integration of visually impaired children into our community by helping their parents to develop special parenting skills and the visually impaired children to develop their maximum potential through various social, educational and training programmes.

The number of the Centre's members continued to increased in 2003/2004 : from 647 in 2002/2003 to 703 in 2003/2004. And the number of drop-in members increased from 2,165 in 2002/2003 to 4,674 in 2003/2004. These figures further proved that more visually impaired members had found the services of the Centre very useful. To accommodate for the increase in number of members, the number of activities held in 2003/2004 was 50% more than that of 2002/2003. 

The total number of developmental and educational activities held for the visually impaired children and their family members came to eighty in 2003/2004, and served 3,099 member participants. They included twenty-seven social and recreational group activities, eighteen support group activities, thirteen educational interest classes, seven visits and fifteen family outings. These programmes and activities helped family members of the Centre to establish intimate parent-child relationship, improved the parenting skills of the parent members, and enhanced the comprehensive development of the visually impaired children members.

Printed newsletters and recorded audio newsletters in form of cassette tape were published quarterly by the Centre to publicize as well as to keep her members informed of the services and activities of the Centre, as well as the latest developments in the field of vision rehabilitation and special education.

To celebrate the setting up of the Centre for five years since 1998, a number of anniversary activities were held. One of them was the Slogan Competition from May to June in 2003 with the theme of "To celebrate the 5th Anniversary of PRC and to publicize the rights and abilities of the visually impaired persons". Forty-five slogans were received from visually impaired members and volunteers. As a highlight of the celebration, the "Fifth Anniversary Slogan Competition Award Presentation cum Volunteer Appreciation Ceremony" was held on 30 August, 2003 to raise public awareness of the ability of visually impaired children, and to acknowledge the time and efforts contributed by the very devoted and long-term volunteers. The outstanding slogans that won the competition were exhibited in the Ceremony. Over twenty visually impaired children and their siblings performed piano solo, chorus and recital during the Ceremony. And twenty-five of the Centre's volunteers performed special drama and Para Para Dance to show their enthusiasm and commitment towards volunteer services. Over 145 members and volunteers attended the ceremony on 30 August.

Another major emphasis of the Centre in 2003/2004 was on community education. A series of Integrated Community Education Programmes were organized for our visually impaired members and the public through our Centre's cooperation with volunteer teams of other welfare organizations. Volunteers from twelve volunteer teams of other welfare organizations joined our Centre's Integrated Community Education Programmes. They included Yung Shing Lutheran Integrated Team, St. James Settlement, Pooi To Middle School, YMCA Shek Kip Mei Centre, Mei Foo Boys' & Girls' Club Association of Hong Kong, Our Lady of the Rosary College, Cheung Sha Wan Catholic Secondary School, Success Piano Co., Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, Ching Han Elderly Centre, Hong Kong Youth Federation and Hong Kong Christian Services. Through the cooperation with volunteers from the mentioned organizations, over fifteen integrated programmes were organized. They helped to improve the volunteers' interaction skills with the visually impaired children and to build up theirs and the public's understanding, care and concern for the visually impaired children. 

In the years to come, the Centre will continue to provide appropriate supportive and advisory services to her members to maintain their healthy developments in education, rehabilitation, social skill and family relationship. The Centre will keep on promoting social integration and community education by cooperating with more volunteer teams to organize a series of integrated community education programmes and a carnival to increase the understanding and interaction between the visually impaired children and the public to produce a more harmonious community for us to live in.

The General Eye and Low Vision Centre

Low Vision Services

The Low Vision Service Centre provides comprehensive low vision services which include low vision assessment, prescription of low vision devices, lending of the devices for home trials, dispensing of the devices and providing referrals for the arrangement of appropriate social and educational services to the visually impaired. The total number of low vision patient attendance in 2003/2004 was 2,250. One hundred and fifty one of them were Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients, and they received free low vision examinations and low vision devices with the generous financial support of the Oriental Daily News Charity Fund.

This Low Vision Service Centre has the most comprehensive range of clinical and rehabilitation low vision services in Hong Kong and continues to serve as a training centre for professional low vision service by providing clinical attachments to twenty seven optometry students of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, one ophthalmologist and two optometrists of the United Christian Hospital, and one low vision clinician of the Himalaya Eye Hospital of Nepal.

Ten thousand low vision simulation cards with background information about low vision care were printed and were distributed to the public through vision screenings and eye care talks. These cards served to educate the public about the causes and visual problems associated with low vision as well as preventive measures. Such printed material was appreciated by parents, school teachers and participants of all ages in the vision screening programmes. Therefore we would continue to use the simulation card as one of the major promotional means for low vision in the coming year.

Two new low vision devices, the Mobilux Telescope and Beecher Telescope, were purchased with the generous support from the Van Zuiden Charity Trust. They served to improve the standard of our low vision service and enabled the Hong Kong low vision patients to have more choices of low vision devices to enhance their visual abilities.

GENERAL EYE SERVICES

The number of general eye patient attendance in 2003/2004 was 39,595, of which 1,898 were Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients. Some of these were patients with mental and physical disabilities, referred to the Centre by social service organizations such as The Salvation Army Lai King Elderly Home, Hong Chi Association Tai Ping Centre & Hostel, Heep Hong Society, Neighborhood Advice-Action Council, St. Jame's Settlement, New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association and Wai Ji Christian Service.

Ninety-eight patients with financial difficulties were in need of urgent eye operations to cure their blinding eye diseases, and they received financial subsidies from the Oriental Daily News Charitable Fund and our Society's Medical Subsidy Fund to have successful sight restoration surgeries in the operating theatres of our Eye Centre.

More than twenty public talks about visual hygiene and vision screening were conducted by staff of the Centre for school students, persons with disabilities and older adults in residential homes in 2003/2004. About two thousand persons from kindergartens, primary schools, elderly centres and special centres for the disabled received such services in 2003/2004.

The Centre acquired one new set of Phaco-emusification cataract machine and one laser station to increase her quality of services of surgical capacity, and the number of surgical cases increased from 498 in 2002/2003 to 687 in 2003/2004. Improvements in hardware and software of the

Phaco-emusification cataract machine acquired three years ago were carried out to give it better performance and efficiency.

NEW SERVICES

The Mobile Vision Screening Bus (VSB) was launched in December 2003 to provide vision screening to kindergarten students, older adults, and persons with mental and physical disabilities to prevent them from acquiring permanent visual disabilities. The project had served more than four hundred kindergarten students and elderly.

With the support of the WHO Low Vision Working Group and the Task Force of the "Vision 2020 - The Right to Sight", and generous donation from the Christoffel-Blinden Mission, Foundation Dark & Light, Sight Savers International and our Society, the Vision 2020 Low Vision Resource Centre (LVRC) was set up in July, 2003 on 2/F of the General Eye and Low Vision Centre. The LVRC had made quality low vision devices and assessment equipment available to low vision service providers in many developing countries at reduced cost to speed up their development of low vision services so that more poor people suffering from low vision could benefit. In 2003/2004, the Resource Centre had supplied over 5,000 devices and equipment to 17 developing countries in the world. 

FUTURE PLANS

To help more developing countries to develop their low vision services with better techniques and through more coordinated efforts, the Centre will conduct a National Focal Persons Training Course in Low Vision and a Lions-WHO Childhood Blindness Training Course on Low Vision with the World Health Organization Low Vision Working Group for about 40 country representatives in the coming year. The courses will help to promote the status of the Hong Kong Society for the Blind and its low vision service internationally.

The Centre will explore the possibility to install Interactive Voice Response System to improve the convenience of her patients by enabling them to make ophthalmological and optometric appointments during and after office hours through automatic telephone booking system.

Consultancy Service Unit

The Consultancy Service Unit (CSU) was consulted by increasing number of architects and contractors for public and private construction projects in 2003/2004, resulting in the largest quantity of products output to her clients since the Unit commenced service in 2000/2001.

The Unit designed a total of 29 tactile maps in 2003/2004 for the KCRC West Rail, Craigengower Cricket Club, Hoi Ha Wan Marine Centre, Tseung Kwan O Hospital and the Hong Kong Institute of Education. And supplied twenty eight of the maps in form of stainless steel to the mentioned projects' clients. This was a clear indication of the professional capability and good commercial competitiveness of CSU in the provision of design and supply of braille and tactile products. 

The CSU developed an audio system with background music to indicate the location of tactile map to the visually impaired users, and the audio system was equipped with audio descriptions in English and Cantonese to inform users about the floor plan and locations of the public facilities. It enabled the visually impaired persons to use the map with much better efficiency, especially those with limited knowledge of braille, so that they could navigate effectively in new and unfamiliar environment. The audio systems were installed in two of the twenty eight maps. In view of its usefulness, CSU would promote the use of audio systems in more tactile maps in 2004/2005.

In addition to the tactile maps, CSU also designed and supplied wall mounted braille plates for the Peking Road Pedestrian Subway to enable visually impaired persons to navigate and find target destinations with greater ease in the subway. It was a pioneer project of the Transport Department, and the Transport Department had planned to install braille plates for more pedestrian subways and footbridges in the years to come.

On top of the mentioned achievements, CSU also played an important professional role by giving advices through meetings to government departments such as the Building Department and its consultant, the Samson Wong and Associates, to comment on drafts of the 2nd edition of the Barrier Free Access Design Manual, the tactile guide path design of the Eastern Lawcourt Building, barrier free design for the grand staircase of Lai Chi Kok Park, and to advise on the design of tactile maps and braille plates in lifts and on handrails for the KCRC's East Rail Extension project. The advisory roles of CSU in such projects further strengthened its professional status and encouraged more architects, construction companies and contractors, public organizations and government departments to use its consultancy service and tactile products.

In 2004/05, CSU will aim to publicize her professional status further by public exhibition and surveys about Hong Kong's barrier free facilities for the visually impaired. The exhibition would be educational, interesting and safe, and involve the latest technical advancement in telecommunication and game elements on top of the basic exhibits of audio system, tactile maps, guide paths and signs of high luminous contrast. The surveys would be conducted through team work of sighted secondary school students and some visually impaired persons to find out where inadequate barrier free facilities existed, and what improvements would be required.

CSU will also try to develop new products in 2004/05, such as the fire escape route tactile map, and to develop new tactile map manufacturing method and materials to reduce the cost and production time of such braille and tactile products.

Residential Services Division

Basically, we followed the eight service objectives set under the Fourth Five Year Programme Plan (2002-2007) in our service delivery in 2003-2004.

PROCESS REENGINEERING

Process reengineering continued in each of the Homes of the Division for improvement of service routines during the year.  Meanwhile, a number of Enhanced Productivity Programmes such as charity sales, health check programmes and respite care had been launched to raise fund to support future service development in face of subvention cut by the government.

VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT

The Task Group on Volunteer Movement set up under the Division made good progress in the year 2003. 

A Pledging Ceremony of the Volunteer Movement (xxx) was held on 27 June 2003. Chief Executive attended the Ceremony to give volunteers support and chaired the "Volunteers Charter Signing" (xxx) at the ceremony. There were 76 volunteers attended.  In addition, a Volunteers Consolidation Day [xxx] was held on 5 December 2003.  The theme of the programme was "How Self-actualization can be Achieved in Volunteer Work" [xxx].  A total of 71 volunteers attended the seminar.

A formal recording of the service hours of each individual volunteers had been commenced as from 1st of January, 2003.  The service hours accumulated in every two years' time will form the basis of award presentation to the dedicated volunteers in the Joint Home Volunteers Recognition Programme held after the completion of two years.  A "Volunteer Passport" (xxx) had been designed and would be distributed to each of the volunteers of the Division as a reference guide to the provision of volunteer services to persons with visual impairment in residential services setting.

CLIENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

A tender bidding was made in June 2003 to invite prospective software design companies to submit proposal and tender price for the design and installation of a Client Information System for residential homes.  The contract was finally awarded to the Fraser Technologies Limited. Trial run of the programme started in March, 2004.

Intranet had been set up in all the Homes of the Division.  Among the five homes, Yuen Long Home for the Aged Blind had made extensive use of the intranet to facilitate communication among different staff teams and to enhance exchange of service information in the formulation and progress review of Individual Care Plans of the service users.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE TEAMS

To pool resources for better service delivery, the Physiotherapy Service Team under the Division continued to provide quality service to the aged blind residents in our four Homes for the Aged Blind.  Apart from normal service delivery, the Physiotherapy Team started the research project to examine the effectiveness of exercise programme in improving the mobility and prevention of fall of the elderly people with visual impairment.  We were grateful to have Professor Alice Jones from the Department of Rehabilitation Science of the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong to be the project consultant. The pilot test was completed in March 2004 and the research programme will last for two years.

Meanwhile, the Dementia Care Service team under the Division continued to run four focus groups namely, Movement to Music, Reminiscence, Remedial Activity and Sensory Stimulation for the demented aged blind in each of our Homes for the Aged Blind.

DEAFBLIND TRAINING PROGRAMME

The Deafblind Training Manual was finally published in May 2003 together with the CD-rom on Tactual Sign Language with the donation given by Mr Poon Tak Pong and his family.  We were deeply grateful to their staunch support in this project that we were able to share with our fellow colleagues in the field of rehabilitation and special education the training of deaf blind in the local context.

Two workshops had been held on 12 July 2003 and 22 November 2003 respectively in joint collaboration with the Ebenezer Training Centre and the Caritas Lok Yan School.  A total of 110 participants attended the first workshop and 56 enrolled in the second workshop which focused more on professional training conducted by two deafblind experts : Mr Kirk Horton, the Asian Regional Representative, and Dr Barbara McLetchie, a consultant in deafblind education, from the Hilton Perkins International Programme.  Very encouraging feedback was collected regarding the quality of the workshop presentations.

COMBAT OF THE SPREAD OF SARS

The year of 2003 was a difficult year for most of the people in Hong Kong in face of the outbreak of SARS between March to early June 2003.  Most people was living in anxiety and our staff had been under great work pressure to follow all guidelines and instructions issued by the Department of Health and the SWD in pursuing the precautionary measures for prevention of the spread of SARS in residential homes, including frequent cleaning of all communal places and dormitories of the residents, strict enforcement of universal precautions in handling clients' personal waste, personal care and normal nursing care.  We learned as we did.  We were pleased to report that we had achieved "zero" infection among all our staff members and residents.

BIDDING OF SELF-FINANCING SERVICE

In response to SWD's invitation to submit proposal for a self-financing project on alternative usage of ex-doctors quarters in Castle Peak Hospital, a proposal on "Residential Support Service for Families with Visually Impaired and Disabled Persons" was submitted to the SWD in late July.  The project aimed to provide supportive services to family with visually impaired/disabled persons in the form of residential respite care, and counselling services to the needy families in Northern New Territories.

Below are highlights of service development in each of the Homes of the Division during the year under review.

Bradbury Care and Attention Home for the Aged Blind

GENERAL SITUATION

The capacity of the Home is 52 with 20 males and 32 females.  During the year under review, 11 residents were admitted, 7 residents passed away, 1 resident was transferred to Yuen Long Home for the Aged Blind for infirmary care and 1 resident withdrew from the placement for personal reasons.  As at the end of March, 2004, there were 51 residents with 20 males and 31 females, representing an occupancy rate of 98.08 %.

MEDICAL AND HEALTH CARE

Throughout the year, the Community Psycho-geriatric Team of Kowloon Hospital and the Community Geriatric Assessment Service of Kwong Wah Hospital provided visiting medical consultations and rehabilitation service to the needy residents of the Home.  In addition, a visiting Medical Officer provided consultation service to our residents once a week.  We appreciated their support and guidance for better care of our aged blind residents. 

A total of 15 residents were found suffering from different levels of senile dementia and 8 residents had been waitlisted for infirmary placement at the Hospital Authority in the year under review.  In order to meet the constant care needs of the frail elderly, we had employed additional staff namely social worker, personal care workers, physiotherapist and occupational therapist to provide special care to the frail elderly and the demented elderly under the provision of Infirmary Care Supplement and Dementia Supplement from the Social Welfare Department.

To prevent residents from rapid deterioration in physical health, health exercise and individual orientation and training programmes had been organized regularly. The community nurses of the Department of Health were invited to give health talks to our residents during the year so as to enrich the residents' health knowledge and awareness. 

Individual rehabilitation and treatment programmes as well as fall assessment for frail residents had been conducted by the Physiotherapist, in order to upkeep their optimal functioning and prevention of fall.

SOCIAL WORK SERVICES

During the year, we have sought support from community volunteer groups and family members of our residents to organize different kinds of social and recreational programme for the residents, such as socialization groups, interest classes, birthday parties, festival celebrations and outings.  Through active participation in these activities, the interaction between residents and the community  had been enhanced and their lives enriched with happiness.

In November, a series of activities for celebration of Senior Citizens Day were organized for the residents and their family members so as to show the respect and concern to the elderies of the Home.  Feedback for the activities was positive and encouraging.

Volunteer recruitment through the organization of volunteer training course had been conducted in the summer of 2003.  A total of 11 volunteers were recruited from the community and they joined the Bradbury's Friend Club to provide visiting service and recreational activities to our residents after completion of the training course.

For better monitoring of residents' individual care, Individual Care Plan for the Home residents were formulated and reviewed throughout the year.   As at the end of March 2004, a total of 61 Individual Care Plans had been reviewed and compiled.  Good progress and substantial individual achievements were recorded.

Customers' satisfaction survey was arranged in October 2003 so as to collect feedbacks from our residents for service improvement and development. A staff retreat day for service development and to devise follow up action plan after collecting residents' feedback from the customers' satisfaction survey was arranged in November 2003. 

IMPROVEMENT OF HOME FACILITIES

During the year, with the support of Lotteries Fund, our Home facilities and equipment were replaced and improved as follows:

--  The outdated emergency call bell system had        been replaced in September 2003 so as to meet    with statutory requirements.

--  Fire equipment including fire control panel, 37 sets   of two-hour emergency lighting and 3 sets of Exit lights had been replaced in August 2003.

--  12 sets of hospital beds and 22 sets of bed        mattresses had been replaced in February 2004.

--  Annual inspection and repair for the Home Van          was completed in March 2004.

IMPROVEMENT IN OCCUPATIONAL  HEALTH AND SAFETY

In order to arouse staff's awareness in occupational health and safety at work, lifting assessment was arranged for staff in December 2003 and a follow up training workshop to enrich the Home staff's knowledge on occupational health and work safety was conducted.  Moreover, a series of staff training programmes including talks and workshops, and regular internal work place risk assessment had been arranged during the year.

COMMUNITY LIAISON

Apart from receiving visitors from various community groups and constant liaison with volunteer groups in the community to provide services for the aged blind residents, the Superintendent was invited to sit on the Kowloon District Elderly Service Coordinating Committee of the Social Welfare Department in the year under review, to maintain close contact with other service organizations in the district.

Kowloon Home for the Aged Blind

GENERAL SITUATION

The Kowloon Home for the Aged Blind has a capacity of 94, which comprises 52 places in Care-and-Attention Section and 42 in Old People Home Section. During the year under review, 12 residents were admitted, 1 residents was transferred to the Jockey Club Tuen Mun Home for the Aged Blind for infirmary care, 3 residents was internally transferred to the Care-and-Attention Section and 7 residents passed away.  The enrolment of Old People Home Section had been affected by the phasing out of Old People Home service that took effect as from 1 January, 2003.  As at 31 March 2004, the total enrolment of residents was 89, representing 94.7% in occupancy rate.

MEDICAL AND HEALTH CARE

Due to the outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Hong Kong, staff of the Home were required to observe strictly to follow all guidelines and instructions issued by the Department of Health and the Social Welfare Department on the necessary precautionary measures.  To prevent the resurgence of SARS, Infection Alert System was set up in the Home and two infection control officers (nurses) were appointed to monitor the spread of infections diseases in the Home.

Visiting doctor came on every Monday and Wednesday to provide general medical consultation to our residents.  As a measure to combat the spread of SARS and to enhance existing medical service, the visiting doctor had been assigned by the Hospital Authority to pay extra visits on every Friday and Saturday from June to August 2003 for the Home.

Community Geriatric Assessment Team (CGAT) from the Caritas Medical Centre and Psychogeriatric Assessment Team (PGT) from Kwai Chung Hospital continued to render outreach service to our needy residents who suffered from physical or mental illness. Over the past year, a total of 19 residents were diagnosed as suffering from senile dementia and 8 frail residents were assessed to be in need of infirmary care.

Over the past year, the attendance of medical follow-up at clinic and hospitalization were 684 and 87 respectively by head count.  Residents' attendance of visiting medical services, CGAT and PGT services were recorded as 1392, 237 and 40 by headcount respectively.  

SOCIAL WORK SERVICE

To promote a more comprehensive care for our residents, and to meet the Funding and Service Agreement requirement, Individual Care Plan (ICP) tailor-made for our residents were formulated and reviewed by a team of professionals led by the social worker.  Over the past year, 12 Individual Care Plans had been formulated for the newly admitted residents and 83 ICPs had been reviewed for the aged blind residents residing in the Home.

To promote residents' awareness towards prevention of contagious diseases, the social work team launched a campaign named "New Culture of Hygiene" from December 2003 to January 2004, which included "Competition of Room Cleanliness", writing up of amusing songs and slogans to promote the importance of hygiene.  The songs and slogans were broadcasted daily to arouse residents' alertness on personal hygiene.  Prizes were awarded to those residents who kept good habit in personal hygiene.

To strengthen the work effectiveness of the duty officer of social work team and to promote care and concern towards the residents, a project named "Care and Attention In Action" was launched by the social work team in collaboration with other professional teams.  Special attention had been paid to the new admissions and existing residents with problematic behaviors and weak health.  It was found that the multidisciplinary approach was very effective in giving consistent care and concern towards residents, especially for crisis prevention and intervention.

Two social work students from the Hong Kong Baptist University carried out their semi-block placement from April to August 2003.  They assisted in the running of mental health group, reminiscence group as well as mass functions and counseling.

Supported by the Dementia Supplement, a part-time social worker and an occupational therapist organized different therapeutic activities and individual treatment to our dementia residents according to their different stage of senile dementia.  For instance, remedial activities and music therapy were organized for all grades of residents suffering from senile dementia, whereas reminiscence activities were organized for those dementia cases with mild to moderate grade. Setting up of a reminiscence corner in 7/F canteen had been in progress to enhance the treatment effect. Outcome measurement for effective programme planning and implementation was devised.

Volunteers of the Home joined actively in the Volunteer Movement set up under the Residential Services Division of the Society. Besides training courses, our volunteers also joined the Pledging Ceremony and Volunteers' Consolidation Day. It was found that the commitment and consolidation of our volunteers had been greatly enhanced.

IMPROVEMENT OF HOME FACILITIES

To prevent the spread of respiratory infectious diseases, the Lotteries Fund had approved a grant of $35,050.00 to our Home to carry out improvement works on isolation facilities. The improvement works were completed in February 2004.

With support from the Lotteries Fund Block Grant 03/04, partition panels of the common toilets on 5/F were replaced; two dormitories on 7/F were renovated to provide a more decent living environment for our residents.

With support from Business Improvement Project of the Social Welfare Department, a grant of $195,400.00 was approved to the Home for the installation of Ozone Laundry System. The installation work was completed satisfactorily in February 2004.  Test run was conducted and it was found to yield significant saving in energy consumption and improvement in linen washing quality.

The repainting of the interior and ceiling of our Home was carried out and completed in August 2003 with the generous support from the Board of Management of the Chinese Permanent Cemeteries Fund. The repainted wall and ceiling not only improved the image and outlook of the Home, it also created a brighter, safer, better orientation and hygienic environment for our residents to enjoy their life in our Home.

We were grateful to the Board of Management of the Chinese Permanent Cemeteries Fund who supported another sum of $462,600.00 in February 2004 for the dismantlement of air ducts, replacement of air-conditioners and lightings of the corridors, together with the procurement of physiotherapy and nursing equipment.  The anticipated date of completion of all these items would be in September 2004.

IMPROVEMENT IN OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

According to the Display Screen Equipment Regulation, working on computers continuously for more than 4 hours a day had been assessed by the Physiotherapist to ensure safe and proper working procedure had been followed for occupational health. Suitable equipment and armchairs were purchased to avoid hazards in workstations.

 Funding was approved by the Cost of Compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance of Labour Department to the Home for the procurement of two service trolleys.  With ergonomical design, it helps to avoid work injuries arisen from mopping and sweeping tasks.

Annual assessment for personal care workers and Workmen II in their ability and skills in manual handling were completed in December 2003 for the period under review.

COMMUNITY LIAISON

In the year 2003, the Superintendent continued to attend the Shamshuipo District Community Medical Service Coordinating meetings organized by the Social Welfare Department and serve as a member of the Elderly Service Committee under the Shamshuipo District Council.

The Home participated in the activities that echo for the Senior Citizen's Day organized by the Shamshuipo District Council in November 2003, by working together with the Neighbourhood Advice Action Council to hold a promotional stall in the neighborhood to arouse the community's concern and respect towards the elderly.

To enrich the life of our residents, we received visits from the volunteer group of schools or charity organizations who also organized activities for the residents during the year.  In the year under review, we had a total of 12 visits from different charity bodies, which had brought lots of happiness to our residents.

Jockey Club Tuen Mun Home for the Aged Blind

GENERAL SITUATION

During the year under review, 36 residents were admitted, 33 residents passed away and 22 residents were internally transferred for higher level of care, from Old People Home Section to Care and Attention Section and from the Care and Attention Section to Infirmary Care Section.  As at 31 March 2004, the number of residents enrolled was 237, representing an occupancy rate of 94.8%.

MEDICAL AND HEALTH CARE

Regular health checks, nursing care and health talks were delivered to the aged blind residents. Three visiting doctors continued their general medical consultation service to residents of Tuen Mun Home. The Community Geriatric Assessment Service (CGAS) of Tuen Mun Hospital extended its service to our Home since 26 August 2003.  During the year, medical doctors of the CGAS provided visiting service to our residents once a month.  Medical attendance at clinics recorded a total of 2,274 by head-count, 849 and 235 by head-count for VMO and CGAT services respectively, 257 by head-count for hospitalization. There was a drop of 21% and 32% medical attendance at clinics and hospitalization respectively. This mainly attributed to the special arrangement on the medical follow-ups and hospital treatment during the outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong.  During the year, nursing guides had been complied.  Topics included feeding, oral care, fall prevention, application of physical restraints, drugs management and safety, handling of medical disposal, respect of personal privacy in daily personal care, handling of service feedback and complaints, care of demented residents, and nursing care on pressure sore, skin, foot, stoma and suction .

PHYSIOTHERAPY SERVICE

The physiotherapy team provided constant assessment, treatment as well as exercise programmes and individual training to the residents, to maintain their physical health and mobility.  Besides, hydrotherapy treatment was rendered to the needy residents.  Apart from giving in-service training to staff on proper transfer and lifting of frail elderly, the physiotherapy team also assisted to conduct a survey on back care for staff.  Neck care, frozen shoulder and office work safety were introduced to staff via Home's newsletter and the display board designated for physiotherapy service.

SOCIAL WORK SERVICE

According to the Funding and Service Agreements, 36 Individual Care Plans (ICPs) had been formulated for new admissions and 208 ICPs had been reviewed to provide quality care for our residents during the year.

The theme on "Encouraging Volunteers' and Residents' Participation, Giving Care and Concern for the Elderly" was set for the year that programmes focused on volunteer recruitment, training and delivery of volunteer services were launched.

On the other hand, three residents' volunteer groups, namely visiting group, recreation group and service group were set up in the Home.  In order to enrich our residents' social life and encourage them to keep contact with the community, residents joined the community programme, named "Happy Talent Show", organized by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department in the District.  Two residents performed in the talent show.

Meanwhile, Certificates of Appreciation were presented to 35 community volunteers and 19 resident volunteers who provided services to the Home in 2003 at the Christmas Carnival 2003.

Apart from regular activities, such as interest groups, morning tea, garden walk and festive programmes, "Elderly College" continued for the residents in the year, which promoted life learning of the elderly.  Fourteen residents were awarded graduation certificates at the Christmas Carnival 2003, who had completed courses on health care, singing, Mandarin, cooking and exercise classes.

A total of 77 residents were diagnosed as suffering from senile dementia and 57 were suspected cases under preliminary assessment as at 31 March 2004. Dementia care service was rendered by a half-time social worker and a part-time occupational therapist under government support of Dementia Supplement. Four kinds of therapeutic groups, namely: movement to music, reminiscence, remedial activities and sensory stimulation were organized for the demented elderly. Besides, individual counseling and training had been delivered to meet with individual needs.

The Meal Service Consultative Committee formed by the resident met twice during the year to review the food menu, the taste of food and the quality with our cooks and nurses.  An average of 50 residents attended the meeting.  Residents were invited to set the food menu as well as visiting the kitchen to get familiarize with the kitchen routines including meal preparation.  Positive comments were received from the residents regarding improvements in meal service.

It was glad that three of our residents who aged over 100 received birthday greetings from the Health, Food and Welfare Bureau in year 2003.

IMPROVEMENT OF HOME FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT

With support from the Lotteries Fund, improvement works to isolation facilities including installation of additional sink and shower systems as well as exhausted fans inside dormitories were completed in February 2004.  Under the Lotteries Fund Block Grant allocations 2003/04, replacement of vinyl sheet flooring in activity room, dormitories, corridors, dinning rooms and assembly hall was carried out.  Besides, the three pantries, inside dining rooms on each floor, had been renovated via replacement of sink compartments and storage cabinets.  In addition, the electric main gate of the Home had been replaced to facilitate vehicle access.  In the year, our staff did minor painting inside the building and replacement of broken floor files at the roof garden and scented garden to maintain a decent living environment for the clients we serve.

In addition, the Sir Robert Ho Tung Charitable Fund approved $145,000 to the Home for installation of an ARJO Showering System on the third floor.  The system was useful and safe in helping the frail aged blind residents to take bath. With support of the Cost of Compliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance and Subsidiary regulations for 2003-04, we purchased three stainless steel trolleys for transferring of meals from kitchen to residents' dinning rooms.

To prepare for the launching of a computerized Client Information System to facilitate service operation, intranet was set up within the Home in 2003.  Besides, five sets of personal computers had been replaced to meet with the operational requirement of the new accounting system of the agency supported under the Business Improvement Project of SWD.

OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH

The Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Committee set up within the Home held their meetings quarterly. With the aim to promote work safety and minimize work injuries, sharing and discussions were focused on safe lifting and transferring of residents. OSH training plan in various service teams, regular first-aid boxes checking, infection control / crisis handling guidelines, checklist on equipment and building facilities maintenance had been done.  Fire prevention and environmental inspection were carried out by unit in-charges on a quarterly basis.  Annual manual handling assessment for all staff was completed in January 2004.  With the implementation of OSH Ordinance on Display Screen Equipment in July 2003, staff performing duties related to the display screen had undergone the assessment in the year.

Guidelines on work safety for working under high temperature, infection control against resurgence of SARS, analysis of staff accidents and proper use of supportive devices and physiotherapy equipments had been added to the Operation Manual of the Home.

Besides, staff was encouraged to attend training held within the Home and by outside organizers to enhance their knowledge, skills and alertness of work safety.

COMMUNITY LIAISON

In the district, the Superintendent was appointed as a committee member of the New Territories Northwest District Health Committee of the Department of Health and continued to serve at the Tuen Mun Hospital NT-West Geriatric Services Consultative and Advisory Committee.

Besides, other than being a committee member of the Elderly Services Co-ordinating Committee of Social Welfare Department in Tuen Mun District, the Superintendent was invited to join the vetting committee of Tuen Mun District 2004 Opportunities for the Elderly Project (OEP), "Healthy or not makes no difference for Elders, Opportunities are plenty for the Golden Years". 

The Superintendent also participated as a member of the Organizing Committee of the Senior Citizen Day 2003, of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service. Residents of the Home helped to make paper handicrafts as souvenirs for the officiating guests and participating guests of the "Senior Citizen Day 2003 - 25th Anniversary for Active Ageing", held on 15 November 2003.

Yuen Long Home for the Aged Blind

GENERAL SITUATION

The Yuen Long Home for the Aged Blind has a capacity of 118, with 58 places in Meal Section, 40 places in Care-and-Attention Section and 20 places in the Infirmary Unit. In order to encourage the elders to live in their own familiar environment in the community, with effect from 1 January 2003, Social Welfare Department has ceased to accept new application for placement at Homes for the Aged Blind.  As a result, only 5 residents were admitted during the year under review. Meanwhile, 6 residents were internally transferred to the Care-and-Attention Section from Meal Section due to health deterioration, 1 resident was transferred to the Infirmary Unit from Meal Section, 6 residents were transferred to the Infirmary Unit from the Care-and Attention Section and 14 residents passed away.  As at 31 March 2003, the total number of residents enrolled was 104, representing an occupancy rate of 88.13%.

MEDICAL AND HEALTH CARE SERVICE

During the year under review, medical attendance at clinics recorded a total of 1,492 by head-count, 87 by head-count for hospitalization and 1,141 by head-count for receiving visiting medical service, which were very much the same as in the pervious year.

With effect from August 2003, Tuen Mun Hospital has extended the Visiting Community Geriatric Assessment Service to the Yuen Long Home. They provided regular on-site visit for residents who suffer from chronic illness.  A total of 42 residents benefited from the service.  During the year under review, a total of 90 by head-count received the Visiting Community Geriatric Assessment Service.

Due to the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) during the year under review, the Home had set up a series of precautionary measures such as strengthening the cleaniness of Home, and regular body temperature screening of residents, to safeguard the health of the residents and staff members for prevention of the spread of virus in the Home. Two nurses had been appointed as Infection Control Officers to deal with infection control and prevention of communicable diseases.  With support from the Lotteries Fund, an isolation room was set up for the residents suspected of or confirmed as suffering from infectious diseases, or just being discharged from hospital for observation.     

SOCIAL WORK ACTIVITIES

Individual Care Plans (ICP) were made for residents to provide the necessary care and support to residents through a comprehensive package of services.  Each ICP was tailor-made for individual resident to meet their specific needs with an aim to enhance and maintain their optimal level of self-care and functioning. During the year under review, a total of 109 Individual Care Plans had been reviewed and 16 ICPs were formulated for new admissions.

To provide quality service to our residents, apart from relying on a group of dedicated staff members, we need a group of volunteers committed in community service too.  To strengthen our volunteer team, Yuen Long Home had conducted a volunteer training programme together with Jockey Club Tuen Mun Home for the Aged Blind in last October.  A total of 60 new volunteers were recruited.  Regular in-service training had been conducted for our existing volunteers to strengthen their skills in handling our clients. 

In order to facilitate communication with and solicit support from the residents, a total of 55 room meetings and Residents' Meetings had been held to collect residents' opinions and ideas on our service operation.  Meanwhile, a barbecue was organized for our residents' relatives to enhance mutual understanding and to learn about their expectation of the Home services.

In order to collect feedback from our residents on the service operation, a Customer Satisfaction Survey had been conducted during the year under review.  A total of 63 residents completed the questionnaire. The questionnaire aimed to collect feedback on "Staff Working Attitude", "Environment and Facilities", "Meal Service","Auxiliary Services" such as escort service,"Activities and Programmes", "Medical Care Service","Physiotherapy Service" and "Communication with the Home". In general, results indicated that 71.43% of the respondents were extremely satisfied with the services provided, whereas 3.17% considered that there was room for improvement in our services and 25.40% of the respondents felt everything alright. The major area they felt dissatisfied was about "Environment and Facilities".  This is understandable as the Home has been in operation for thirty years that most of the facilities, furniture and equipment became worn-out due to long years of service and the environmental design is not up to present standard.

IMPROVEMENT OF EQUIPMENT AND FACILITIES

Yuen Long Home for the Aged Blind has been in operation since 1971. After the recent major renovation done in 1995 supported by the Lotteries Fund, we found many of the facilities and the building construction became worn out and were in need of repair and replacement after eight years of time.  To protect the safety of our residents and to maintain a decent living environment for our residents, funding application to the Lotteries Fund for support of a major renovation was submitted in 2002 and a grant of about 4 million was approved in May, 2003.  In addition, we were grateful to the Board of Management of the Chinese Permanent Cemeteries Fund for support of the replacement of Home Van that had been in use for twelve years.  The new Home Van started its service since October, 2003.  Both staff and residents were pleased with the replacement, as the new Home Van was equipped with wheelchair lift and wheelchair locks.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

The Yuen Long Home For the Aged Blind continued to serve as a member of the Yuen Long District Rehabilitation Service Coordinating Committee and NT-West Geriatric Services Consultative & Advisory Committee.  At the same time, the social worker and the Superintendent took part in the sub-working group and the Yuen Long District Elderly Service Joint Function and Community Working Group as members respectively during the year, to help in launching public educational activities in the district.

During the year, we received a total of 21 visits from schools, volunteer groups and charity organizations. We made use of these opportunities to introduce our service to the general public and the younger generation. Through these visits, better understanding between our visually impaired residents and the community was achieved.

Morning Glory Day Activity Centre cum Hostel

GENERAL SITUATION

During the year, the total capacity and the enrolment for the Morning Glory Day Activity Centre and Hostel are both 62, representing an occupancy rate of 100%. We have provided each trainee with two Individual Training Plans (ITP) and one Individual Care Plan (ICP) during the year under review. The rate of achieving the ITP and ICP is 100% that meets with the requirement of the Funding and Service Agreement.

SOCIAL WORK SERVICE

The trainees' interests are our primary concern in assessing their service needs and developing their potential. The case managers are responsible for monitoring the progress of the implementation of Individual Training Plan and Individual Care Plan. They also delivered counseling service to resolve the behavioral and emotional problems of trainees and conducted house meetings, case and training meetings to follow up on the needs and personal growth of the trainees.

During the year, the case managers and the therapists completed the annual case review via home visits or case conferences with parents. We were glad to have parents' participation in the formulation of new Individual Service Plan for trainees in 2004.  We appreciate the support and active participation of the parents in this exercise.

TRAINING

We strive to enhance inter-professional and staff collaboration in developing trainees' multi-intelligence during the year. We have provided trainees with various channels to practice their work skills in actual environment so as to enhance their work competence and sense of responsibility.

In day training, we organized different interest groups such as dancing class, singing group, art and craftwork, domestic household chores in order to strengthen trainees' daily living skills and to enrich their choice of hobbies.  Meanwhile, we put emphasis on motivating trainees to express their own ideas and suggestions when attending training, to make them feel being respected and to widen their horizon for personal growth.  During the year, parents and volunteers were impressed by trainees' increased motivation to participate and to share.

In August 2003, we launched a Mini Sport Day at the Shek Kip Mei Indoor Sport Centre.  Parents, volunteers and trainees enjoyed sport games very much.  In addition, a programme named "My Dream Carnival" was held last summer that trainees were encouraged to speak up and tell us about their dreams on stage.  Seeing that the trainees showed confidence and trying their best to express their dreams, the parents, volunteers as well as staff members were delighted to share their remarkable improvement. At the contest, named "Mr and Miss Morning Glory for the Year", the winners who achieved the greatest progress in the year got the awards and shared happiness with their parents.

DEAF-BLIND REHABILITATION PROGRAMME

During the year, four trainees received tactual-sign training to strengthen their communication. In November, 2003, we were glad to have two Consultants from the Perkins School for the Blind of US, visited our Deafblind training programme and conducted a very fruitful sharing with our training staff.  We were advised to conduct chats with every deafblind client for 10 minutes every day to show our care and concern, and make use of real objects in daily living as the teaching aids for Deaf-blind training instead of using photo cards. Meanwhile, staff participated actively in organizing public workshops on Deaf-blind Rehabilitation Professional Training in July and December, 2003 respectively.  Our social workers and instructors joined the two workshops and learned a lot in developing strategic programming and effective approaches in Deaf-blind training.

HOUSE MEAL PROGRAMME

Another accomplishment achieved this year was the successful implementation of the House Meal Programme in each of the five houses of the Home. During the year under review, trainees were encouraged to set a menu for making meal for their House once a week. The programme helped to enhance trainees' competence in making choice and practicing their cooking skills. Residents of the five houses held lunch gatherings with their parents during March 2004.  A total of 24 parents and 62 trainees joined the lunch gatherings. Parents' positive feedback and appreciation shown when they enjoyed the meals together with their disabled child, gave effective encouragement to the trainees.

TEN FAVOURITE RECIPES ELECTION 2003

In order to promote the working relationship between clients and the cooks, we have launched a lunch buffet, named "The Ten Favourite Recipes Election 2003" in March 2004 for trainees of the Morning Glory DAC cum Hostel and aged blind residents of the Kowloon Home for the Aged Blind respectively. The buffet was well received and it helped to promote communication between the cooks and the service users.

MEDICAL AND HEALTH CARE

"Prevention of Infections" and "Keep-fit" were the main themes in health care for the year.  In order to avoid the resurgence of SARS, Dengue Fever and Influenza in the Home, we encouraged trainees to do more physical exercise, wash their hands and take healthy diet. Meanwhile, we gave our trainees healthy tea, fruits and fruit juice to help them to build up body strength to avoid contracting infectious diseases. Residents did physical exercise everyday, kept washing their hands when dirty and wore facemask in time of need. With full support from staff and residents, we were thankful to have gone through the threats of SARS and influenza in the year.

Special measures and contingent isolation arrangement were set up when residents inside the Home get influenza. Meanwhile, we kept close inspection to maintain the living place clean and hygienic. Pamphlets introducing various common infectious diseases and tips on keeping public and personal hygiene had been published and put into the Home's newsletter for parents' references too. In November, 2003, staff and residents had been encouraged to take immunization vaccine injection against influenza.

PARENTS WORK

Parents of the Morning Glory Day Activity Centre and the Bradbury Home took part in the Parents-Staff Sharing meeting.  Apart from deliberation on issues relating to service operations that held once a quarter, parents also participated in the discussion of the recent issue of "Standardized Assessment Tool to assess the residential care needs of the disabled", "Service Restructuring of the Psychiatric Outreaching Service of Siu Lam Hospital", and the "Outreaching service of PT and OT services of the SWD Central Para-medical Team".  Talks on health education and healthy diets had been organized for health promotion.

Meanwhile, we also shared with parents about "Case Assessment" and "Survey on Body Balancing of the residents".  Parents were pleased with the sharing and it helped to promote mutual understanding on the physical growth and aging problems that our residents faced with between parents and staff.

The election of new Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Parents Association took place during November 2003.  Thanks were due to our dedicated ex-Chairman of the Parents Association, Mr Au Ku Tin, for his enormous contribution during the past year.  The new Chairman elected is Ms Sit Siu Fun. In 2004, the goal of the Parents Association would be to promote mutual care among parents through the formation of several support networks.  Each group leader would be responsible for calling up group members by phone regularly or make home visit to show their support and concern.  The Parents Association also organized regular social and recreational activities for relationship building.

In February, 2004, Miss Fan Wai Ying, younger sister of our resident, Mr Fan, was presented the "Shamshuipo Best Carer Award" in appreciation of her loving care and contribution in taking care of her disabled brother.

SUNDAY TRANSPORT SERVICE

Since September 2003, Sunday transportation service for residents was launched in order to relieve the escort burden of the parents when residents taking home leave. Safety guides for drivers, staff and parents had been compiled for service users. Parents welcomed the new transportation service.

VOLUNTEER & COMMUNITY SERVICE

During the year, we put efforts in strengthening the support network of the volunteers. In order to promote their sense of belongings and mutual support, regular training and sharing among volunteers was held by social workers.  As at end of March 2004, we had a regular pool of volunteers over 30.  That included parents, housewives and working youth.  They rendered 609 services in terms of frequency during the year that included outdoor and indoor programmes, and regular visits. Their active participation did enrich the social life and psychosocial growth of our residents and their own sense of achievement.

We were grateful to the contribution of the volunteers from both the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Baptist University in organizing community visits and social programmes for our trainees during weekends and for the Holiday Care programmes.

CHARITY ACTIVITIES

During the year under review, service users of both MGCH and BH had actively participated in the agency's charity activities such as "Gala Premier" and "Let there be Light -Charity Walk". Some of the residents of the Bradbury Home also took part in the Flag Day of other NGOs as volunteers. They gain satisfaction and better understanding about the proverb "To give is better than to take".

COMMUNITY PROGRAMMES

During the year under review, we have sought funding support from the Shamshuipo District Board, the Hong Kong Bank Foundation Fund and the Lotteries Fund to carry out a series of community programmes. Programmes included the "IDDP - Happy Gathering in Shamshuipo", "Merry Christmas" and the "Volunteer Visiting Service at Lunar New Year" organized by Shamshuipo Public Education Civil Education Committee.

COMMUNITY LIAISON

The Superintendent joined the Network Committee for Mentally Handicapped Service under the Hong Kong Council of Social Service on behalf of the Agency. While one of the social workers joined the working groups on "Good Practices of Residential Service for MH".  In addition, the Superintendent and another social worker joined the Working Group on "Survey on the Residential Service Needs of the Mild MH Adult" to help in design of the questionnaire and the territory-wide study.

HOLIDAY CARE PROJECT

During the year, the total number of client registered for the service was 95, including 63 males and 32 females aged from 9 to 49. The total number of sessions held for the year was 204 and the total number of enrolment was 3,152 by head-count. The average daily attendance was 12, including weekends and public holidays.  The average enrolment rate met the output standard set by SWD.

Apart from rendering service to the holiday care service users, the social workers also worked closely with the referrers to offer psychosocial support and referral to community service to parents of the disabled service users to resolve their own family problems and stress in taking care of the disabled children.

Meanwhile, the Occupational Therapist and social worker in charge of the project spent additional effort to give guidance and advice to the trainers and volunteers of the Holiday Care Programme in handling the emotions and misbehavior of the service users in a more effective way, to alleviate their aggressive behaviors, to deal with the run away problems of the clients and to protect oneself from work injury due to mishandling of service users.

During the year, various kinds of indoor and outdoor activities had been organized for the Holiday Care Service users on weekends and long holidays. In March 2004, we organized an outing for 35 Holiday Care Service users and their families who enjoyed the outing a lot.

PROMOTION OF OCCUPATIONAL

SAFETY & HEALTH (OSH)

An internal staff sharing meeting on OSH and inspection of physical environment inside Home was held in August 2003. Staff worked together to inspect the home facilities and work safety devices to ensure that they were in good condition and to conduct a sharing on OSH in carrying out their job duties.

During the year, we have conducted an internal survey on "Occupational Safety and Health" and conducted environmental assessment on Occupational Safety. The report had been completed. It was glad to know that 93% of staff members were satisfied with the staff training programme and equipment on work safety. Meanwhile, a functional capacity evaluation was conducted for staff who were required to perform manual handling duties. Apart from organizing regular occupational safety and health seminar for staff members to reinforce their knowledge and appropriate skills in discharging manual handling and to minimize work injury of staff, manual handling assessment for all staff was completed in January 2004.  The assessment served the aims of enhancing staff alertness to OSH and to identify their training needs in work safety.

To improve the living environment, replacement of air duct and installation of split air-conditioners, replacement of doors and sofa beds in the dormitories on 4/F of the Home, minor renovation work in the Domestic Training room and Room 311, waterproofing works and replacement of the floor tiles at the open terrace of 3/F, replacement of vinyl floor of 4/F and the renovation of kitchen ventilation were done.

STAFF RETREAT AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

Staff of the Morning Glory DAC cum Hostel and the Bradbury Home joined the regular in-service training workshops for instructors, talks on manual handling and proper transfer, back and neck care, proper handling of mobility training for residents as well as epilepsy during the year.

In December 2003, team leaders attended the "Team Leader Retreat Day" and in February and March 2004.  In-service workshops were organized for the nursing team and instructors.  The themes discussed included case assessment, drug management, nursing care and creative thinking.  Staff was willing to share and participate actively in the meetings that foster good communication for better service improvement.

Bradbury Home

GENERAL SITUATION

During the year, the total capacity and the enrolment of Bradbury Home is ten, including four males and six females, representing an occupancy rate of 100%. The rate of achieving the Individual Service Plan is 100% that meets with the output standard set in the Funding and Service Agreement.

SOCIAL WORK SERVICE

Apart from the implementation of Individual Service Plan for residents, the Hostel Supervisor conducted regular interviews with residents to review their service needs and to provide counseling service. Intensive casework was rendered in order to enhance residents' interpersonal functioning and their social skills in conflict management. Residents were encouraged to pursue positive communication with one another and to learn the way to handle their own emotions and stress in a proper way.  Good progress was made.

With an advancement of age, we added the topic of "Menopause" in health education for our residents. In cookery training, we encouraged our residents to learn to use different cooking utensils and cooking methods to improve their cooking skills. Meanwhile, residents were encouraged to do exercise every day, wash their hands when dirty and to keep healthy diet so that they would be strong enough to stay away from infectious diseases.

During the year, various interest groups were organized for residents such as "Knowing Sex", "Sex Education Group", "Healthcare News Group", "Knowing my real self", arts and craft group, and "Computer workshop".

INDEPENDENT LIVING SKILLS TRAINING

During the year, the total number of evening outdoor programmes held was