2004/2005

Chairman's Foreword
The past year has been a year of consolidation of the work of the Hong Kong Society for the Blind. We have concentrated our efforts on ensuring that the quality of services provided by our staff to our many clients measures up to or exceeds expectations. Where possible we have been able to extend our services to cover areas which in the views of both staff and clients would be beneficial to recipients. We have, for example, extended our Career Support & Development Centre into a Career Development, Training & Public Education Centre. This new Centre aims at promoting the employment opportunities of our clients as well as educating the public about the needs and abilities of the visually impaired.

We have also initiated a multi-sensory training programme for the mentally handicapped blind which has been added to the rehabilitation programme of the Morning Glory DAC-cum-Hostel. This initiative has been welcomed by parents many of whom have been able to see a marked improvement in the behaviour of their children.

 

 

The Factory for the Blind has set up a Barrier Free Access Technology Service Unit for the production of Braille signage, tactile maps and tactile products. This Unit has been working closely with the Society's Consultancy Service Unit, which has enabled products to be designed to facilitate easy access to the visually impaired and particularly to public buildings and public transport.

 

We were most grateful to have received a grant of HK$4.32 million from the Lotteries Fund to enable us to make essential repairs to and maintenance of the Yuen Long Home for the Aged Blind. The cost of maintaining the Yuen Long Home has become a regular burden on the finances of the Society. Accordingly, preliminary plans have been drawn up with a view to demolishing the Home and rebuilding it to modern standards, to ensure that its residents may live a contented life in a safe and hygienic environment. Funding is being sought, and we are hopeful that the plans may be brought to fruition over the next few years.

Every year in my Foreword I have made particular mention of the work of our many volunteers, without whom the work of the Society would be significantly restricted. Volunteers offer their services out of a sense of service to the Society and the community and with no hope of reward. However, as a small token of our appreciation of their dedication, we feel that it would be appropriate for their work to be recognised in some way by the Society. Accordingly, arrangements are being made to hold an Appreciation Ceremony annually, at which certificates of appreciation will be presented to the volunteers.

Hong Kong people are becoming more aware of their rights, to the extent that many are becoming more litigious. In view of the increasing complexity of dealing with the many staff-related issues, which incidentally beset most organizations, the Council of the Society has taken the decision to up-grade our human resources management. It is to be hoped that both staff and management will benefit from this initiative and that issues which arise may be resolved within the Society rather than externally. We have to recognise that times have changed. Labour legislation has become more complex; the obligations of staff to the Society and vice-versa have become increasingly circumscribed. It is therefore to the benefit of all that staff matters should be dealt with by both sides not only in a spirit of compromise but also within the framework of the law. We are hopeful that the creation of an up-graded human resources department will help achieve these ends.

Finally, may I thank all who have served the Society during the past year: Grace Chan and her staff; members of the Society's Council and its committees; our auditors, bankers and our many volunteers; whilst a particular word of thanks goes to all our donors without whose financial support we could not carry on our work.

Clive Oxley
Chairman

 

 

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Chief Executive's Report

A harmonious society has always been the ideal of many Hong Kong citizens. Several conditions need to exist before every citizen in a society can live in harmony: equal opportunities to fully utilize one's potential, equal attention paid to expressing different opinions, and equal treatment for different classes of people in society. And these are the tasks that the Society has strived to achieve for since its establishment in 1956.
Experiences from modern society show a disability does not necessarily imply that the disabled person's daily activity and contribution to society need to be restricted. One of the gravest problems that a person with disability faces is not the physical disability itself, but the social stigma, misunderstanding from the general public and the lack of suitable accessible facility. Removing such social barrier and improving physical access will enable people with disabilities to fully integrate and participate in society.

In the fiscal year 2004-2005, apart from continuing its efforts to maintain the best quality of existing services, the Society also put in extra efforts to nurture a more harmonious society in Hong Kong through raising public awareness on the needs of people with visual impairment, creating a better access free environment and improving their employment opportunities.

A harmonious society entails proper respect and attitude to different groups of people, and a willingness to offer assistance when required. This required proper understanding and public awareness.In our efforts to raise public awareness, the Society began with children at an early age. Our mobile vision screening bus conducted vision-screening services for kindergarten school children (besides elderly people) on a regular basis. The service, apart from free vision screening services, also gave talks on proper eye care to children, their parents, teachers, and elderly people, thus raising their concern on eye care and preventing the occurrence of blinding eye diseases. Last year, the programme reached more than 3,600 persons.

Positive experience of personal involvement and contact with people with visual impairment will enhance respect and understanding. To this aim, the Society constantly organized volunteer training and recognition programmes to enable more people to have a first hand experience interacting with people with visual impairment. In the Residential Services Division, about 80 new volunteers had been recruited during the year under review; or in other words, more than 263 volunteers were currently active. In the Rehabilitation Division, more than 350 volunteers assisted in various services such as book reading, escort services, talking book production services and visiting services for visually impaired trainees. The volunteers' involvement with our visually impaired population gave them a first hand experience so that they could serve as our ambassadors to promote and publicize the proper attitude and techniques in dealing with people with visual impairment.

Our headquarters building received more than 3000 visitors yearly. These visitors would be able to acquire a deeper understanding on the services available and the needs of our visually impaired clients. They also would have the opportunities to interact with our members and listen to first hand testimony of how people with visual impairment could overcome their predicament and perform at par with their sighted counterparts, when provided with the proper facilities and equipment.

 

Staff of our Rehabilitation Centre frequently visited different schools, social service centres and organisations to conduct talks on how to interact with people with visual impairment and on sighted guide techniques. In the year under review, we reached more than 400 persons. Having been properly briefed, a person would be able to greet people with visual impairment with the appropriate manner and attitude. When he/she saw people with visual impairment walking on the street or ready to cross a road, they would know how to ask courteously whether the blind person would need assistance, and to guide the latter in a comfortable and respectful manner when the service was required.

 

We are not stopping just at the results that we have achieved. In the coming year, we would establish a service unit specialized in public education and promotion. We would act more proactively by sending out visually impaired staff to different levels of educational institutes (kindergarten, primary, secondary, and tertiary), different social services centres and different organisations to conduct talks relating to people with visual impairment. We hope such activities will enable us to reach out to students of all levels and educate them on the needs and potentials of people with visual impairment.

 

A physically barrier free environment is essential for independent mobility which is prerequisite for social, psychological, and employment integration for our visually impaired clients. During the year under review, the Society put in enormous efforts to advocate the importance of a barrier free environment. The Consultancy Services Unit, with support from the Health Welfare & Food Bureau, organized public education mass programmes on Barrier Free Access, with exhibitions and road shows at various shopping arcades. We also cooperated with the Hong Kong City University to launch the "See the Blind, Feel the Shine" mass programme which included exhibitions, drama performance, a braille calendar competition and visits to service departments of the Society. These activities raised public awareness on the importance of a barrier free environment for the well-being and benefit of people with visual impairment.

 

Although the New Design Manual for new buildings has requirement for barrier free facilities for people with visual impairment, most barrier free facilities of new buildings and public services facilities were far from satisfactory. Either the tactile maps were not readable by people with visual impairment, or the tactile guide-paths would lead the blind clients to a potentially hazard area (such as not enough space between end of guide-path and door opening) We are in the process of designing cost effective, high color contrast, durable and highly tactile sign products, such as tactile maps and exit signs that suit the needs of the low vision and totally blind population. The prototype would be ready in the year 2006. We would launch a large campaign to promote such products and inform the public of the importance of properly designed guide-paths.

 

 

With the rapid development of information technology, people with visual impairment can now access information through the Internet as efficiently as their sighted counterparts. During the year under review, the Career Support and Development Centre organized regular training courses on IT. Thanks to the support of the Social Welfare Department and the Community Chest, more than 100 visually impaired clients received the basic and advanced training. We are continuing with the process of exploring possible employment opportunities for our clients, using information technology.

 

Employment serves more than the provision of a job. Meaningful employment provides people with visual impairment dignity, self-respect and a sense of control over their destiny. Employment for people with visual impairment around the world has always been a difficult task to tackle. In Hong Kong, acupressure and massage has been one of the more popular occupations for people with visual impairment. To upgrade the standards of practice and to promote a good image of visually impaired masseurs, the Society encouraged properly trained masseurs to obtain recognized qualification. During the year under review, through the arrangement of the Society, 19 masseurs passed the advanced examination and obtained certificate of practice as Advanced Masseurs, issued by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security of China. The certificate is recognized in China and internationally. In the coming years, the Society would promote the understanding of the importance and benefits of proper qualifications among visually impaired masseurs and their employers. Hopefully, with greater employment opportunities and better qualifications, our visually impaired masseurs would earn greater respect from both their customers and employers.

 

Below is a summary of the activities of the Society in 2004-05:

 

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Finance & Administration Division
General Financial Situation

This was the fourth year the Society had opted for the Lump Sum Grant. For the financial year ended 31 March 2005, the Society had recorded a surplus of $7,665,574 including Tide-Over-Grant (TOG) of $4,151,121 and an adjustment of $1,590,531 from the Specific Fund as affected by a new Statement of Standard Accounting Practice No. 35 "Accounting for Government Grants and Disclosure of Government Assistance". As the Community Chest had deferred the 15% cut in allocation and the Society was able to control the expenditure for the subvented units, 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 $3,514,453 which was a satisfactory surplus. In accordance with the requirement of the Social Welfare Department Lump Sum Grant Manual , the cumulative unspent lump sum grant of four years at a total value of $18,339,722 had been transferred from the General Fund to a "Lump Sum Grant Reserve Fund" (including PF Reserve). The "Enhancing Employment of People with Disabilities through Small Enterprise Grant" had supported the opening of a new service unit, the Barrier Free Access Technology Service Unit. It was established on 16 December 2004 with a smooth progress for the time being. Overall speaking, the Society continued to be in a healthy financial situation .

No Flag Day was allotted in 2004/05, instead three Marathon Concerts and a Charity Concert were successfully held in December 2004 and January 2005 to raise funds for the operation of the Parents Resource Centre for Visually Impaired Children. The income was $987,029 whereas expenditure was $84,136 with a net surplus of income over expenditure of $902,893.

 

Accounts Department

The installation of a new Financial Management System funded by the Lotteries Fund was completed in October 2004. The decentralized Oracle Core Application Programme, as developed jointly by PCCW and the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, provides an effective way for various service units to retrieve the financial data for cost monitoring and budgetary control. Other financial strategies related to cost savings, and in particular, on Personal Emoluments were implemented to meet the SWD efficiency savings of 2.5% during the financial year. In addition, to maintain tighter 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 were conducted regularly to ensure all collected fees matched with the computer records.

During the year under review, the Accounts Department was responsible for co-ordinating the receipt and the donation boxes for public subscription at the Marathon Concerts and Charity Concert and preparation of the required audited account as required by the Social Welfare Department, Hospital Authority or other financial supported organizations.

 

Administration Department

All departments of the Society need administrative back up and support in rendering their services to the visually impaired. Through the team work efforts, staff members of the Administration Department had been working hard to improve supportive office services to each and every department. During the year under review, the Administration Department contributed a great deal in many of the Society's programmed activities. They included the AMD Alliance Reception, the 7th World Blind Union Asia Pacific Regional Massage Seminar, National Focal Persons Training Course in Low Vision, World Sight Day "Seeing is Believing", The Hong Kong Bank Foundation Daisy Book Players Donation Ceremony, Lions-WHO Childhood Blindnesss Training Course in Low Vision, Marathon Charity Concert and Charity Sales. Apart from the Society's programmes, the Department also assisted in organizing two Singing Concerts for the social welfare sector held at the Society's Assembly Hall and Ko Shan Theatre to celebrate the 55th Anniversary of the National Day.

For the office hygiene and sanitation aspects, the water tanks were cleaned twice a year. Special contents were put to the flushing water tanks once a month and all the toilets' flushing are properly sterilized. The Department also arranged eight times with The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department to remove away all the approved items for disposal during the year.

For 2004/05, the Administration Department has completed quite a number of projects relating to building repair and maintenance. They included the rewirings and replacements of fire service break glass units, renovation of the external wall of watchman's entrance with new aluminum cladding of white colour at West Wing, fan coil units and fresh air handling units in the air conditioning system were chemically cleaned and replaced with metal air filters. Two sets of Advertisement Light Boxes at Nam Cheong Street and Tai Hang Sai Street with coloured pictures of the General Eye & Low Vision Centre, Health Massage and Treatment Centre and the Factory for the Blind were installed.

During the year, the Administration Department received over 919 visitors who came from different local and overseas organizations, educational institutes, medical units, to name a few: included Mr. Donald Tsang, the Chief Executive of the Government of the HKSAR, Mrs. Mary Ma, the Commissioner for Rehabilitation, Mr. Patrick Chow, Senior Labour Officer, Selective Placement Division of the Labour Department, Directors from Disney Land Corporation, Madam Chiu Siu Wah, Vice Chairman of All China Women's Federation, Mr. Dennis Cory, Chairman of the International Mobility Federation, Mr. Charles Mossop and Mr. Gerrad Grace from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and Mr. Liew Yoon Loy, Vice President of the Malaysian Association for the Blind. The Administration Department would continue to receive visitors locally and from overseas for future enhancement of blind service development both locally and internationally.

 

Factory for the Blind

SALES
The Factory business remained steady in 2004/05. The total sales of the Factory for the 04/05 fiscal year was $13,201,431.29, a decrease of $558,447.74 (-4.06%) over 03/04 figure of $13,759,879.03. Sales for the Trading Section in 2004/05 were $1,765,426.10 and recorded the largest increase of 21.75% over 03/04. Sales generated from the Registration Electoral Office's Letter shopping order and Ballot Template Project during the 2004 Legislative Council Election accounted for most of the increase.

 

For the individual Production Sections, Paper Box Section, Filing Tag Section and Assembling Section had recorded a 3.37%, 12.31% and 3.33% drop in sales respectively compared to the year 03/04, whereas the sales in Sewing Section had a positive increase by 1.4% over the sales in 03/04. A drop was recorded in the Braille/Tactile Products Section, from $1,275,629.88 in 03/04 to $768,354.27 in 04/05, (decrease of 39.77%). The reason being that the Lingnan University contract in 2003/04 accounted for the exceptionally high sales in that year.

FILING TAG SECTION
We were pleased to report that the Government Logistics Department had awarded a two-year contract to the Factory so that the blind workers could continue to the gainfully employed. In order to catch up with the tight delivery schedule for the 480,000 bags of filing tags, extra machinery and manpower had to be employed. At the same time, the Factory had contacted the Hong Kong Polytechnic University to investigate the possibility of making an automatic filing tag production machine in order to improve the flexibility in production capacity.

BARRIER FREE ACCESS TECHNOLOGY SERVICE UNIT (BFATS)
Supported by funding from "Enhancing Employment of People with Disabilities though Small Enterprise" Scheme (EEPDSE), the Barrier Free Access Technology Service Units (BFATS) was set up on 16th December 2004. The Braille/Tactile Products Section was integrated into the BFATS with effect from April 1, 2005.

BFATS not only provided job opportunities for people with disabilities, but also produced suitable barrier free products for the customers, helping to build a safe and convenient environment for people with visual impairment. BFATS, although under the administration and management of the Factory, had its own accounts and staffing, as required by the Social Welfare Department "EEPDSE" scheme.

PIANO TUNING
Due to the high professional service standard of our visually impaired piano tuners, the Factory was successfully awarded a three-year contract for the period 24 June 2005 to 23 June 2008 for the upright piano tuning service with the Leisure and Cultural Services Department right after the conclusion of the previous 2-year contract from 2003 to 2005.

FACTORY SAFETY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME
The Factory for the Blind had always considered work safety as one of the most important objectives in the entire Factory operation. With effect from September 2003, a series of Safety Improvement Programme had been implemented. Four air compressors had been relocated to a new air compressors room in May 2004. All machineries of the Factory were now protected with electrical inter-locking switch and all movable mechanical parties were protected with covers and guarding to prevent possible injuries to workers. The Safety Improvement programme would be completed in April 2005.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
Together with our own machineries and equipment granted by the Social Welfare Department "EEPDSE" scheme, the Factory would put more emphasis on product development of tactile map production. We were about to complete the tactile map product testing, refining and finishing cycle. The Factory would work closely with the Consultancy Service Unit of the Society to conduct surveys on Barrier Free Access facilities in major public buildings and shopping arcades in Hong Kong. The marketing team of the Factory would take a proactive approach to those building surveyed, and offer a "One Stop Barrier Free Service" at reasonable costs to the property owners. In addition, the Factory was exploring the possibility of assisting the Homes for the Aged Blind of the Society to purchase rehabilitation and hygiene products, such as aids and appliances, underpad and diapers as new product development for the trading business.

 

 

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Rehabilitation Division
 

Rehabilitation Centre

The aims and objectives of the Rehabilitation Centre were to provide comprehensive rehabilitation training programme for visually impaired people aged 16 and above. Upon completion of training, visually impaired clients would regain their self-confidence and be equipped with all necessary skills to facilitate them living into community. Two modes of training were 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.

SERVICE FOCUSES OF THE YEAR

As a result of the efforts to upgrade our training programme, courses had been improved and substantiated, including:

1) Two UltraCanes were acquired for training purposes. These were newly developed canes applying ultrasound technology to convert surface and overhead or hanging objects detected into vibrating signals, which the visually impaired user could determine by touch on the cane-top of their distances, so that crashing into them could be avoided and thus ensuring mobility safety.

2) Set up regular meetings for domestic science and rehabilitation instructors. These instructors would meet quarterly to review on different training topics and methods. Such exchanges had provided opportunities for the instructors to display their potentials as well as enhanced the knowledge and skills of each other.

3) Enriched the variety in cookery class. To teach the making of typical food of different festivals, for instance, the dumpling of the Dragon Boat Festival and Mooncake of the Mid-autumn Festival, etc. The trainees enjoyed the arrangements tremendously.

The Centre had always held a positive attitude towards up-grading training quality, standard and listen to service users' feedback. From now on, trainees would be requested to complete the Training Assessment Form upon finishing each course. Valuable information and useful ideas had been collected in this way.

The Centre had joined in as one of the assessment centres of the Shamshuipo District of the Town Gas Concession Fees for the Disabled Scheme, responsible for assessing applications from people with disabilities living in the District. As the Scheme had been popular among the disabled, there were many applications. We were all happy to contribute to the community.

 

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
In October 2004, the Centre took part in the electronic audible traffic signals (eATS) quality assurance project of the Transport Department. Experienced Orientation and Mobility (O&M) Instructors provided leadership, technical support and advice relevant to O&M of the visually impaired, with respect to the application of eATS in particular. Recommendations on signal volume settings, installation positions, etc. were made to enable the visually impaired to locate the eATS units easily as well as take direction effectively for road crossing.

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 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. Fifteen Sighted Guide talks were conducted for about 1,500 students of universities, secondary and primary schools 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.

 

Communication Department

The objectives of the Communication Department were 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 to produce talking books. 
- To recruit and co-ordinate volunteers to assist the visually impaired in daily living, such as escorting, tutoring, personal documents handling, etc.

ACTIVITIES
Eighteen library members and some staff visited the HMS Exeter Royal Navy Ship of the United Kingdom on 7 June 2004 when she came to Hong Kong. All the participants enjoyed it very much.

Invited by the Asian Youth Orchestra, 45 library members and staff/volunteers attended the rehearsal concert in the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts on 31 July 2004. Each visually impaired participant was given a nice radio as a souvenir.

A fun fair for donation, which was mainly conducted by a group of dedicated volunteers, was held on 30 January 2005 at the Assembly Hall and the carpark in the West Wing of the Society's Headquarters. It was an immensely successful function that had attracted more than 1,300 participants.

BRAILLE AND TALKING BOOK LIBRARY
Established in 1965, the Braille and Talking Book Library was the only public library for the visually impaired in Hong Kong. As at March 2005, it had a readership of 2,200, a collection of over 10,000 titles and a variety of magazines.

 

With a grant from the Hongkong Bank Foundation, 400 DAISY book players were acquired from Canada for loan to library members to read talking books at home or in the Library. The majority of these devices had already been lent to the needy users on a three-month loan basis. Statistics showed that many library members had started using DAISY books because of the availability of DAISY book players and DAISY reading software for computers as well as the prevalent advantages of the system itself, including easy to read, store and carry.

MUSIC LIBRARY
The Music Library was set up in November 1993. The current collection were over 3,100 compact discs. The Music Appreciation Centre of the Library proved to be popular among members. During the year under review, over 1,500 users had been recorded.

 

 

CD-ROM LIBRARY The CD-ROM Library was set up in 1996. The current collection were over 4,800 CD-ROM's/VCD's and various videotapes, covering a wide range of subjects, such as history, geography, education, literature, health, science, technology, etc.

 

PROFESSIONAL LIBRARY
Established in 1986, the aims and objectives of the Professional Library were to provide reference materials concerning visually impairment for both the staff of the Society and other professionals on special education, rehabilitation, vocational training, adaptive technology, low vision, prevention of blindness, etc. The Library currently had a collection of 1,280 titles and a variety 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, with the assistance of many dedicated volunteers, the Studios produced 130 talking books of general interest and 13 magazines of different subjects in both English and Chinese. With a grant from the Hongkong Bank Foundation, a DAISY Production and Storage Local Area Network was being set up in the Studios which would greatly enhance the productivity and efficiency of the recording service upon completion.

VOLUNTEER REFERRAL SERVICE
The Department played an important role in the recruitment of volunteers to assist in recording talking books and serving visually impaired persons. During the year under review, hundreds of volunteers were arranged to provide service in brailling, reading, personal documents handling, tutoring, escorting, etc. Thanks were due to hundreds of dedicated volunteers for making this service a great success.

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.  In the year under review, the output of master braille pages almost reached 225,000, while the overall production (including copies) numbered 632,760 sheets.  CBPC received many Mathematics and Science textbook transcription applications for the year and the number of tactile diagram masters produced exceeded 15,000 sheets.

To handle the large number of diagrams, it was fortunate that CBPC had obtained a Tiger Professional embosser the year before that could emboss finer dots of non restricted array directly from Microsoft Windows.  CBPC had for years been looking for ways and means to modernise the tactile diagram making method.  Many softwares and techniques were tried but none was found feasible at an affordable cost.  The Tiger embosser turned out to be a major and most welcome technology breakthrough in braille production in recent years.  Since the embosser had become so essential for CBPC to finish all the textbooks on time with the exceptional large quantitity of tactile diagrams required, CBPC had acquired a second unit in 2004. 

CBPC had acquired more OCR programmes to speed up braille production.  CBPC had also overhauled its three Braillo highspeed embossers in order to maintain its production volume. 

In addition to reference and textbooks of primary, secondary and tertiary academic levels, which had 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
‧ 公民教育：了解殘疾邁向全納校園
‧《保護私隱及尊嚴》守則
‧ 僱傭條例簡明指南
‧ 香港特別行政區施政架構
‧ 國際流行保健按摩套路 : 泰式
‧ 國際流行保健按摩套路 : 歐式
‧ 淺談鎮靜按摩
‧ 傷科按摩學
‧ 頭頸肩上肢保健按摩
‧ 淺談練功對推拿工作者的影響
‧ 視窗XP與聲點《中文JAWS》入門
‧ Outlook Express入門
‧ 香港復康聯盟年報
‧ 香港視障視全人士協會年報
‧ 二零零五年日曆

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 impaird 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 expand 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 progrmmes for people already practicing in the trade.

The newly renovated Beauty & Massage Centre and SPA services were launched in May 2004. The Centre is well equipped and provides a full range of services including beauty therapy, SPA, foot reflexology and body massage. Besides, there are training rooms for organising massage interest courses. The opening of the new Centre helps to create more job opportunities for the visually impaired, and let them fully demonstrate their expertise and potentials.

Elementary massage and aromatherapy interest courses for the general public were organised in order to promote awareness of massage and its advantages to our health. Health talks, massage demonstrations, media interviews to publicise massage service were also organised frequently.

A telephone recording system was installed in February 2005 with the view to improve appointment booking for the customers.

The 9th Massage Training Course for the Visually Impaired commenced in October 2004 with nine trainees. The course included a comprehensive syllabus on basic Chinese medicine theories, human anatomy, massage techniques, and a three-month supervised field practicum which would be conducted from July to October 2005. The Society always encouraged practicing masseurs to continue learning and obtain recognized qualifications. In an effort to raise the standard of practice of the visually impaired masseurs, the Society, in December 2004, arranged 11 visually impaired to take part in the Advance Massage Technician Skills Assessment. All of them passed the assessment and were granted the Senior Skill Level Occupational Qualification Certificate issued by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security of the People's Republic of China. This qualification is recognized nationally in China and internationally in many countries.

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Research & Development Division
Career Support and Development Centre

The Career Support and Development Centre was established with the mission to facilitate people with visual impairment to i) Overcome difficulties brought forth by their visual impairment through training on the use of latest adaptive equipment and information techniques, ii) better integration and participation in Society through identifying employment opportunities development of new employment skills and iii) Enhance better quality of life through provision of high quality adaptive equipment at a very reasonable cost.

Supported by the Community Chest, the Employment Service Unit, together with the Supported Employment programme funded by the Social Welfare Department, successfully placed 37 visually impaired persons in open employment.

 

 

The 9th Massage Training Course for the Visually Impaired commenced in October 2004 with nine trainees. The course included a comprehensive syllabus on basic Chinese medicine theories, human anatomy, massage techniques, and a three-month supervised field practicum which would be conducted from July to October 2005. The Society always encouraged practicing masseurs to continue learning and obtain recognized qualifications. In an effort to raise the standard of practice of the visually impaired masseurs, the Society, in December 2004, arranged 11 visually impaired to take part in the Advance Massage Technician Skills Assessment. All of them passed the assessment and were granted the Senior Skill Level Occupational Qualification Certificate issued by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security of the People's Republic of China. This qualification is recognized nationally in China and internationally in many countries.

 

The Centre continued to take part in the third and fourth phases of the IT Awareness Programme for People with Disabilities sponsored by the Social Welfare Department. In 2004/05, 97 courses were conducted and a total number of 310 visually impaired persons were trained. The adaptive equipment section recorded total sales of 2,521. Talking watch, canes, and talking clock remained the best selling items.

During the period, over 14,390 users have been recorded using the various services of the Centre.

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 Centre provides appropriate supportive and advisory services to her members in education, rehabilitation, healthy family relationship and social intergration to facilitate the visually impaired children's integration into our community.

With supports from her members, volunteers and other social organisations, the number of registered members reached 705 in 2004/05 while the number of registered volunteers was 128. A total of 103 developmental and educational activities was held in 2004/05 and served 5,239 members. Ten were organized by the social and recreation groups, 27 by the support groups, and there were 22 educational interest classes, 13 observational visits and 11 family outings. These activities helped to establish intimate parent-child relationship, improved the parenting skills of the parents and enhanced the comprehensive development of the visually impaired children.

Another major emphases of the Centre was on community education. A series of public and community education programmes on social integration was organized for the visually impaired members and the public through our Centre's cooperation with volunteer teams of other welfare organizations. Volunteers from thirteen volunteer teams of other welfare organizations participated in our Centre's Integrated Community Education Programmes. They included Yung Shing Lutheran Integrated Team, St. James Settlement, Mei Foo Boys'& Girls' Club Association of Hong Kong, Whampao International Children & Youth Service Ltd., Holy Trinity College, Success Piano Co., Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, Hong Kong Cats Club, Hong Kong Professional Musician Association Ltd., Leo Club of Metropolitan Hong Kong, Baptist University, Chains of Charity and HKCATS. Through the cooperation with the above volunteer teams, over 15 integrated programmes were organized. They helped to improve volunteers' interaction skills with the visually impaired children and to build up their understanding, care and concern for the visually impaired.

A series of large scale promotional and community programmes were organized by our Centre in 2004/05. The most significant events were 3 Marathon Charity Concerts in shopping plazas and one main Concert in the Baptist University with the theme of "Joining Hands & Hearts" to raise funds and to demonstrate to the community the musical talents and abilities of visually impaired children and youths. The concerts were co-organized with the Sun Hung Kai Volunteer Team & the Success Piano Co.

The three Marathon Charity Concerts were held at Tsuen Wan Plaza on 19 December, 2004, and the Shatin New Town Plaza on 8 and 9 January, 2005. Over 180 children and youth from the primary schools, secondary schools, music centres made donations and performed on the stage. The main Concert was held on 23 January, 2005 in A.C. Hall of the Baptist University, with over 280 performers performed group singing, dancing, and orchestra. They were Ms. Amy Tam of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Angels Children's Choir of Arts with the Disabled Association Hong Kong, Kai Po Kindergarten, Shatin Children's Choir, V Band of Lutheran Yung Shing Integrated Services Team, St. Stephen's College Preparatory School, Amuse a Cappella, Good Health Angol-Chinese Kindergarten & Child Care Centre, Funful English Primary School and Yew Chung International School. More importantly, the famous composer, Mr. Mahmood Rajahn also performed together with Miss Ruby Lee, a thirteen years old visually impaired member of our Centre, and another very talented visually impaired musician, Mr. Chor Wai Hong. The Marathon and Main Charity Concerts were held with great success with over 1,000 attendees from the public. And the performances well demonstrated the artistic talent of the visually impaired to the public. Through the programmes, interaction between the visually impaired children and the public was strongly enhanced to achieve the purpose of joining hands & hearts together between the sighted and visually impaired people.

In the year to come, our Centre will continue to facilitate social integration between the sighted and visually impaired by cooperating with as many volunteer teams as possible and to organise charity marathon concerts and a series of integrated community education programmes. Through the programmes, we would build up the volunteers' understanding, care and concern for the visually impaired children.

The General Eye and Low Vision Centre

LOW VISION SERVICES

 

The Low Vision Centre was established in 1984 to provide comprehensive low vision services to the visually impaired. Her prime aim is to serve the visually impaired with low vision assessment, prescription of low vision devices, lending of the devices for home trials, dispensing of the devices and to make appropriate referrals for necessary social and educational services. The total number of low vision patient attendance in 2004/2005 was 2,441. One hundred and eight of them were Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients.

 

Being the most comprehensive clinical and rehabilitation low vision services provider in Hong Kong, the Centre serves as a training centre and provides clinical attachments to 25 final year Optometry students of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, one ophthalmologist of the United Christian Hospital, and 3 ophthalmologists from the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhongshan University to improve their clinical low vision skill and knowledge.

We employed eye diseases simulation goggles in public promotional activities and health care talks to educate the public about the causes and problems associated with low vision. These educational activities were welcomed by the public, teachers, students and social workers.

 

To help 29 developing countries to establish and to develop their low vision services with better techniques and coordinated efforts, the Centre, in collabration with the World Health Organization Low Vision Working Group, conducted a National Focal Persons Training Course in Low Vision from middle of July to middle of August, and a WHO-Lions Childhood Blindness Training Course in Low Vision from middle of November to middle of December. Altogether 46 delegates participated into these two training courses. The courses helped to promote the international status of the Hong Kong Society for the Blind and its low vision service globally. GENERAL EYE SERVICES The number of general eye patient attendance in 2004/2005 was 42,798, of which 1,019 were Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients. Some were patients with mental and physical disabilities, referred to the Centre by social service organizations and hostels for old age people with visual impairment. In 2004/05, our operating theatres helped 619 cataract patients to restore their eyesight. With funding from the Oriental Daily News Charitable Fund and our Society Medical Subsidy Fund, 46 patients with financial difficulties and were in need of urgent eye operations to cure their blinding eye diseases, had their eye sight successfully restored in the operating theatres of our Eye Centre.

MOBILE VISION SCREENING SERVICE Our vision screening team was equipped with the Mobile Vision Screening Bus. And it provided vision screenings and health care talks to kindergarten children, disabled persons and the elderly to prevent the development of permanent visual disability among these people and to promote GELVC's eye care services. The Bus and its vision screening team visited about 20 kindergartens, homes for the elderly and centres for the disabled, more than 2,500 people were served in 2004/2005. In addition, public vision screening was conducted for two days with the Consultancy Service Unit in the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau's Barrier Free Access Public Education project in Grand Century Place in January 2005. The screening was welcomed by the public. As a support to the World Sight Day 2004, the Centre co-organized two-days glaucoma vision screening with the Hong Kong Standard Chartered Bank with exhibition of low vision devices in October 2004 to promote the importance of early detection and prevention of eye diseases. More than 150 staff of the bank received eye examinations.

During the year under review, the Tuen Mun and Yuen Long branch clinics acquired two stand-alone fundus cameras in 2004. They have been used to improve the quality of service by monitoring the ocular health of patients of these two clinics more effectively. FUTURE PLANS In the year to come, the Centre will conduct researches on how to improve low vision service with low vision devices. The Centre will explore the possibility of installing Interactive Voice Response System and automatic telephone answering system to improve the ophthlmological and optometric booking and appointment system so that it will become more convenience for her patients. The system will provide booking and answering enquires during and after office hours.

Consultancy Service Unit

The Consultancy Service Unit designed and supplied a total of 24 tactile maps to her clients in 2004/05 for the KCRC East Rail, Lo Wu Control Point, Lingnan University, Ma On Shan Park, H.K. Federation of Handicapped Youth and the KCRC Kowloon Tong Station. Five of the maps were installed with audio devices that produced verbal instruction to the maps' users. Through cooperation with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Engineering Department and one of our suppliers, we had made breakthroughs in the technology of audio device : one of the tactile maps in the Lingnan University was installed with audio device driven by solar power, while the tactile map built for the Hong Kong Federation of Handicapped Youth was installed with an infrared sensor that could activate the map's audio description when visually impaired users approached the map. These results were a clear indication of the professional capability and good commercial competitiveness of our Consultancy Service Unit (CSU) in the provision of design and supply of tactile products. CSU also designed and supplied braille plates to the KCRC train stations along the Ma On Shan railway line to enable the visually impaired persons to navigate and find their directions and destinations with greater ease in the platforms and concourses.

In addition to the mentioned business achievements, CSU also played an important professional role by giving advices through meetings with 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 Design Manual. CSU also provided advices to the Architectural Services Department, the University of Hong Kong, and the City University of Hong Kong about how to enhance barrier free facilities for the visually impaired in government premises and the university campuses. 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 the tactile products of the Factory for the Blind.

The Unit had organized two educational events for the public in 2004/05, namely, the Community Inclusion and Barriers Free Society Project sponsored by the Health Welfare and Food Bureau (HWFB). And the "See the Blind, Feel the Shine" campaign jointly organized with the Division of Language Studies of the City University of Hong Kong. The objectives of the events were to promote the concept of "Barrier Free" and "Community Inclusion" through public exhibition, games, dramas, braille calendar drawing competition and visits to our Headquarters. The activities were educational, safe and interesting. On top of using the basic exhibits of audio devices, tactile maps, guide paths and highly visible signs of good luminous contrast, the latest technological advancement in 3G telecommunication was also employed to demonstrate how barrier free access facilities can benefit people with visual impairment.

In the mentioned period, we conducted two surveys among people with visual impairment and the general public. The survey for the visually impaired was to collect their opinions on the existing barrier free access facilities and the recommendations for improvement. The survey for the general public was to find out their knowledge about visual impairment and visually impaired persons, and their views on the existing and future development of barrier free facilities in Hong Kong. The results of the surveys, to a great extend, would help us to know more about the users and the public's opinions and to formulate CSU's promotional and marketing strategies.

 

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Residential Services Division

Basically, the Residential Services Division has been following the eight service objectives set under the Fourth Five Year Programme Plan (2002-2007) to deliver and improve our service delivery in 2004-2005. Major achievements as at 31 March 2005 are highlighted as follows:

SERVICE QUALITY CONTROL
Operation Manuals of the Homes have been reviewed from time to time to meet with the changing needs of our service users and the policy of the agency. During the year 2004/05 under review, discussion of operational guidelines for management of problem cases, refinement of the admission letter and drawing up of guidelines for infection control in residential setting had been conducted.

To collect feedback from service users regarding our delivery of residential care, residents' meetings and meetings with residents' family members had been held in each of the Homes regularly. In addition, a Residents' Advisory Committee had been set up in BCAH, a Meal Service Consultative Committee comprising representatives of residents was set up under TMHAB. Besides, questionnaires were designed and dispatched to collect service feedback from residents in terms of living environment, meal service, programme varieties and personal care, through the help of volunteers.

Service Quality indicators for some of the service teams such as the social work teams had been devised for outcome measurement. Apart from this, quality indicators are set to exercise control over resident's accidents, proper delivery of drugs and meal service, in order to promote staff commitment in the provision of quality care to our service users. For details, please refer to individual homes' reports.

VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT
A "Volunteer Passport" (明亮我心義工手冊) has been designed and distributed to each of the volunteers of the Division in 2004 as a reference guide to the provision of volunteer services to persons with visual impairment in residential services setting. In 2004, about 80 new volunteers had been recruited for the Residential Services Division. Up to March 2005, we have built up a pool of 339 volunteers for the Residential Services Division. Among these 339 volunteers, more than half gave services to the different aged homes and the Morning Glory DAC cum Hostel of HKSB.

 

A formal recording of the service hours of each individual volunteer had been commenced as from 1st of January 2003. The service hours accumulated in every two years' time form the basis of award presentation to the dedicated volunteers in the Joint Home Volunteers Recognition Programme held after the completion of two years. The first volunteer appreciation ceremony of the Division was held on 27 January 2005. A total of one hundred volunteers attended the ceremony.

 

RESIDENTS AS VOLUNTEERS
Volunteer groups among residents had been set up among the more capable service users in some of the Homes to promote mutual help and community service spirit. Visit to fellow inmates and other community services had been organized as their regular activities. Feedback from participants had been positive as they were able to raise their self-confidence and self-esteem in rendering volunteer service.

INCEPTION OF THE CLIENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
After a trial run of half year's time, the Client Information System for residential homes went live as from 1st October 2004. Staff training had been arranged on 18 and 20 October 2004 for the social work teams and nursing team respectively. The inception of Client Information System in the residential homes proved to have facilitated communication among staff of different disciplines in the Home, including the social work team, the nursing team and the para-medical team. Individual Care Plans could be updated and progress of individual clients could be reviewed on-line. It also proved to reduce printing of hard copies of daily case recordings and training records that had posed storage problem for the Homes after years of operation. The objective to achieve paperless office was about to attain very soon.

 

DEMENTIA CARE SERVICE FOR THE AGED BLIND
Good progress had been made for the dementia care service for the aged blind during the year in staff training and the setting up of Reminiscent Floor and Corners in our Homes. The Opening of the Reminiscent Floor at The Kowloon Home for the Aged Blind on 29 July 2004 marked the milestone of dementia care service for the aged blind in our aged blind homes. Dr Yu Chi Sing, the Consultant of Psychogeriatric Department of Kwai Chung Hospital, Senior Artist Madam Law Lan and Mrs Anna Mak, District Officer of the Social Welfare Department of Shamshuipo District officiated at the Opening Ceremony.

 

 

A two-day staff training programme was launched in July 2004. Dr Yu Chi Sing, and Ms Lee Yuet Ying, an Occupational Therapist from Kwai Chung Hospital, Dr. Claudia Lai from the Nursing Dept of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University were invited as the speakers.

 

Visits to the Psychogeriatric Ward of the Castle Peak Hospital and Dementia unit of SKH Li Ka Sing Care and Attention Home were held in June 2004 and July 2004 respectively. Altogether, over 50 staff members attended the two visits. The workshops and the visits gave participants lots of insight in the daily treatment and personal care of our demented aged blind.

DEAFBLIND TRAINING PROGRAMME
During 2004/05, an internal staff-training workshop was conducted on 10 July jointly by the Society, the Ebenezer Training Centre and the Caritas Jockey Club Lok Yan School. A total of 46 staff members working with deafblind from the three agencies attended. The workshop was fruitful as members working with deafblind school-age children, adults with different degree of disabilities had the chance to share with one another the progress of making use of special techniques and methods of teaching they learned from the two experts of Perkins School for the Blind the year before.

SELF-FINANCING PROJECT AT CASTLE PEAK EX-DOCTORS QUARTERS
With support from the SWD, we were given a block at the Castle Peak Ex-doctors quarters (Low -blocks) to start self-financing community support and residential respite services to the visually impaired persons living in the community.

The site, after renovation, will commence operation in late 2005.The new Home will be able to accommodate 8 persons for residential care. Through the provision of appropriate independent living skills training and day placement to develop their work potentials, the new project aims to provide supportive services to people with visual impairment for transition to an independent living in the community and ultimate social integration.

CONVERSION OF OPH PLACES INTO CARE AND ATTENTION PLACES IN HOMES FOR THE AGED BLIND
Under the new policy of providing residential care to frail elderly, the Social Welfare Department approved to the conversion ratio of two Old People Home beds to one Care & Attention bed in our Homes for the Aged Blind with Old People Home Section, at "Cost-neutral" principle in late September 2004. After the conversion, the new C & A capacity approved for Tuen Mun Home, Yuen Long Home & Kowloon Home will be 188, 60 & 76 respectively. By adding the existing infirmary capacity, the new total capacity of Tuen Mun Home & Yuen Long Home will be 228 & 80 respectively.

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, 6 residents were admitted, 8 residents passed away. As at the end of March, 2005, there were 49 residents with 19 males and 30 females, representing an occupancy rate of 94.23 %.

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, two Visiting Medical Officers 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 14 residents were found suffering from different levels of senile dementia and 12 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
Individual Care Plan for the Home residents were formulated and reviewed throughout the year. As at the end of March 2005, a total of 65 Individual Care Plans had been reviewed and compiled. Good progress and substantial individual achievements were recorded.

During the year, we had 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.

Volunteer recruitment through the organization of volunteer training course had been conducted in the summer of 2004. A total of 11 volunteers were recruited from the community and they joined the Bradbury's Friend Club to provide regularvisits and to provide assistance to residents attending recreational programmes, after their completion of the training course.

In order to promote the concept of "user participation" in the Home, a "Customers Service Committee" was established in January 2005. Ten Committee members were nominated by the residents and three members were invited from residents' family members. Regular meetings were held to collect service users' feedback so as to improve the Home services and the residents' quality of life throughout the year. As a result, better communication between the Home and the service users was achieved.

IMPROVEMENT OF HOME FACILITIES:
With support from the Lotteries Fund, we were able to purchase coil cleaning service for twenty-one sets of air conditioners and four sets of air-shutters in August 2004 for improvement of ventilation inside Home; acquired forty-four sets of window curtains for the residents' dormitories as replacement of the worn-out ones in September 2004; and to conduct annual inspection and repair of the Home Van in March 2005.

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 2004 and a follow up training workshop was conducted to enrich their knowledge on occupational health and work safety. Moreover, a series of staff training programmes including talks and workshops, and regular internal work place risk assessment had been arranged during the year, to maintain a safe working and living environment inside the Home.

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
During the year under review, 1 resident was admitted, 23 residents were internally transferred from Old People Home Section to Care and Attention Section and 8 residents passed away. According to the conversion plan, the Old People Home Section would be converted to Care and Attention Home by two phases, and the first phase commenced in January 2005. The new capacity for the Care and Attention Section would be increased from 52 to 76 when the conversion exercise completed in September 2005 and residents in need of higher level of care had been internally transferred to the Care and Attention Section since January, 2005.

MEDICAL AND HEALTH CARE
Measures for control of the spread of respiratory infectious disease were strengthened during the year under review, especially in terms of an improvement of the ventilation of the Home. Additional exhaust fans were installed. The old air ducts at 5/F to 7/F corridors where bacteria bred were dismantled and new air-conditioner units were installed. Moreover, staff from the Department of Electrical and Mechanical Services came to check for the air quality of the Home and gave us advices for improvement of ventilation inside the Home. The new measures taken and facilities installed had proved to be effective in improving the ventilation and sanitation of the Home to a great extent.

To further improve the personal hygiene of residents and environmental hygiene of the Home, two electric bedpan washers were installed inside residents' common toilets on 5/F and 7/F respectively. Hygiene of residents' clothing was strengthened by using the newly installed ozone laundry system which got laboratory proof of killing various bacteria.

Visiting doctor came on every Wednesday to provide general medical consultation to our residents and over the past year, residents' attendance recorded 855 by headcount. In addition, Community Geriatric Assessment Team (CGAT) from the Caritas Medical Centre and Psychogeriatric Assessment Team (PGT) from Kwai Chung Hospital provided regular outreaching service to our residents with chronic illness both physically and mentally. Residents' attendance of CGAT and PGT services were recorded as 281 and 57 respectively and the total attendance of medical follow up at clinics and hospitalization were 613 and 79 respectively by head count. During the year under review, a total of 23 residents were diagnosed as suffering from senile dementia and 9 residents were assessed and confirmed to be in need of infirmary care service.

Regarding health and rehabilitation service of the residents, the Nursing Team and the Physiotherapy Team worked in joint collaboration to carry out "Daily Exercise Programme" for the residents. During the year under review, there were a total of 419 exercise sessions organized and a total attendance of 6,451 was recorded.

 

SOCIAL WORK SERVICES
To maintain and promote comprehensive care for our residents, and to meet with the requirement of Funding and Service Agreement, Individual Care Plans (ICP) for residents were formulated and reviewed regularly by case workers and professional staff of different teams. During the case meetings, communication and sharing among different professions was facilitated by using the computerized Client Information System (CIS), which was put into operation since October 2004. Over the past year, 27 individual care plans had been formulated for the newly admitted residents while 74 had been reviewed for the rest of the residents.

In order to promote and encourage residents to undergo active aging, various types of groups and programmes were organized for the choice of the residents. In the past year, there was a total of 24 social groups organized, whilst 13 outings and 7 group, named "The Concern Group" formed by the aged blind residents of Old People Home Section continued to pay regular concern visits to needy residents of the Home with an aim to promote volunteerism and create a caring and cohesive Home spirit among residents. Residents' empowerment was achieved by regular meetings of the Service Consultation Committee, which comprised different representatives from each dormitory unit. Immediate action for improvement of the Home service was taken after collection of opinions from the committee members. Moreover, opinions about the Home's service were collected via different channels during the year under review, such as the 24 room meetings and 12 residents monthly meetings. In addition, a Customer Satisfaction Survey had been conducted in November 2004 to explore residents' opinion of the Home's services and the measures taken to control spread of infectious disease. A total of 52 residents gave feedback in the survey. The overall feedback was positive and 96% of residents expressed that they had faith in the various infectious control measures adopted by the Home for control of the spread of infectious diseases.

Regarding specialized services to aged blind with senile dementia, the Dementia Care Service Team put a lot of efforts in setting up a therapeutic environment on 7/F of the Home to enhance the therapeutic effect of reminiscence for the growing number of dementia residents in the Home. The Opening Ceremony of the Reminiscent Floor "耆樂軒" was held on 29 July 2004 with an aim to promote public and service users' understanding of senile dementia and the therapeutic effect of reminiscent. This also set a milestone in our delivery of quality treatment service for the dementia residents.

For social work education, the Home provided chance for training future social workers. Two students of the Social Work Department from the Baptist University carried out their semi-block placement from April to August 2004 at the Kowloon Home. They assisted in the running of mental health group, reminiscent group as well as mass functions and delivery of counselling service for our aged blind residents. Their placement added strength to the professional manpower of the Home in our delivery of quality service to the aged blind.

 

 

IMPROVEMENT OF HOME FACILITIES With support from a private donor and the Board of Management of the Chinese Permanent Cemeteries Fund, a total sum of $150,000 was granted to the Home to support the replacement of all access doors of the Home. The renovation work was completed in January 2005. The new doors not only improved the outlook and brightness of the Home, the new red purple access doors had improved the orientation of the visually impaired residents inside the Home and created a safer and more comfortable environment for the aged blind residents.

 

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Board of Management of the Chinese Permanent Cemeteries Fund again who supported another sum of $412,600 for the dismantling of the air ducts at the corridors of 5/F to 7/F, installation of new air-conditioner units and reflected panels, and procurement of physiotherapy equipment and nursing equipment. All these new replacement of equipment was completed in the year 2004,that improved both the living environment and service quality to the aged blind residents.

With support of the Lotteries Fund, a total of $68,640 was approved to the Home to purchase occupational safety equipment to minimize the risk of work injury of staff that arose from manual handling during delivery of daily care and transfer of the aged blind residents. One bath chair, one standing hoist, one mini hoist, five one way glide sheets, four transfer belt and nineteen corsets were purchased.

COMMUNITY LIAISON
In the year 2004, the Superintendent continued to attend the Shamshuipo District Community Medical Service Coordinating Committee meetings organized by the Social Welfare Department to maintain communication with other welfare agencies and geriatric medical service units of the district.

During the past year, the Home also made further progress in liaison work with various social service organizations, schools and volunteer bodies. There was a total of 22 community service groups visited our Home and they organized activities for our residents to enrich their home life.

 

Jockey Club Tuen Mun Home for the Aged Blind

GENERAL SITUATION
During the year under review, 10 residents were admitted, 19 residents passed away and 29 residents were transferred internally 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 2005, the number of residents enrolled was 225, representing an occupancy rate of 90%.

To meet with conversion of Old People Home (OPH) places to Care and Attention places in residential homes according to government's policy of providing residential care to the frail elderly, the Jockey Club Tuen Mun Home for the Aged Blind would have to convert 54 OPH places into 32 C&A places by two phases. As from 1 January 2005, 17 C&A places had been added to the C&A capacity and by September, 2005, the total capacity of the Home would be 228, including 188 for care and attention places and 40 for infirmary places.

MEDICAL AND HEALTH CARE
Regular health checks, nursing care and health talks were delivered to the aged blind residents. Four visiting doctors continued to render their general medical consultation service to residents of the Tuen Mun Home. The Community Geriatric Assessment Service (CGAS) of the Tuen Mun Hospital provided regular visiting service to our Home in the year. Medical attendance at clinics recorded a total of 2,022 by head-count, 583 and 459 by head-count for VMO and CGAS respectively, 263 by head-count for hospitalization. There was a drop of 11% of medical attendance at clinics. This mainly attributed to the visiting service of CGAS that the aged blind residents received regular medical consultation from the specialists inside the Home. There was an increase of 2.3% for hospitalization as compared to that of last year, that some of the residents experienced health deterioration due to ageing.

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. In-service training on 'Proper Transfer and Lifting of Frail Elderly', 'Work Safety under Hot Working Environment', 'Care on Hip Joint Replacement' and 'Wheelchair Maneuver' had been conducted for frontline staff during the year under review. In addition, workshops on 'Back Care ' and 'Osteoarthtic Knee' were conducted for volunteers and residents respectively. Information on 'Care on Hip Joint Replacement' was introduced to staff via Home's newsletter and the display board designated for physiotherapy service. The physiotherapy team joined the social work team to produce a videotape on physical exercise for the aged blind residents so as to promote their awareness of maintaining good physical health.

 

SOCIAL WORK SERVICES
During the year, 10 Individual Care Plans (ICPs) had been formulated for new admissions and 267 ICPs had been reviewed to meet with the specific needs of our residents.

"Healthy Ageing, Healthy Life" was set as the service theme for the year that programmes focused on daily physical exercise and health talks were organized for the residents. In addition, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department had been invited to organize and design four exercises programme that suit the physical and mobility abilities of our residents. Besides, the residents had been arranged to visit the Health Education Centre of the Department of Health where they got new information about healthy and hygienic living.

Apart from this, residents had been encouraged to participate in a series of programmes relating to health menu design, quiz, morning exercise, Tai-Qi Class and etc. for promotion of healthy living inside Home.

The "Elderly College" which was set up in 1998 for promoting life learning of the elderly continued this year. Twenty residents were awarded graduation certificates at the Christmas Carnival 2004, for completing courses on handicraft, history, gardening, health care, mandarin, social skill and singing.

In order to enrich our residents' social life and encourage them to keep in contact with the community, residents took part in the performance shows organized at kindergartens, Secondary Schools and various community programmes organized by the Social Welfare Department and the Leisure and Cultural Services Department in the district.

 

DEMENTIA CARE SERVICE
A total of 72 residents were diagnosed as suffering from senile dementia and 53 were suspected cases under preliminary assessment as at 31 March 2005.

Dementia Care Service was rendered by a half-time social worker and a part-time Occupational therapist under government support of Dementia Supplement. This year, fourteen focused therapeutic groups were held which included reminiscence, sensory stimulation, movement to music and remedial activity. A total of 550 residents by head-count attended the treatment groups. Besides, a mass programme focused on reminiscence was held during Chinese Lunar New Year where the residents enjoyed traditional food, activities, displays of photos and traditional accessories used for cooking, wedding, playing majongs and daily life in the olden days. Residents enjoyed the programme and were eager to share with us their old stories. In addition, a reminiscence corner was furnished inside the Activity Room on the third floor to enhance the treatment effect through the use of environmental design.

SERVICE QUALITY CONTROL
A Customers Satisfaction Survey was conducted to collect residents' feedback on the physical environment, social work service, nursing care and para-medical services of the Home. A staff sharing session was conducted to review customers' feedback collected. The Meal Service Consultative Committee meeting continued to collect feedback from residents for quality meal service. The committee members were invited to visit the kitchen and share with our cooks their comment on the meal service. Regular relatives' and floor residents' meeting were held during the year, to discuss the service development of the Home as well as to collect opinions of the residents and their relatives about the Home services. Newsletters for Relatives were published and delivered via mail and email to all family members of the residents after each Relatives' Meetings to enhance communication.

IMPROVEMENT OF HOME FACILITIES AND EQUIPMENT
Under the Lotteries Fund Block Grant allocation, the isolation facilities for infection control had been improved, the entrance gate on LG/F, the fire extinguishers, and televisions had been replaced in addition to vehicle overhauling and renovation work done for water-proofing inside one of the dormitories and the kitchen.

The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited had generously supported $59,000 to replace and install three sets of gas ranges that included: one set of Double Heads Stainless Steel Stockpot Stove, two Single Stainless Steel Chinese Food Steamers and a 3-door Stainless Steel Steamer Cabinet for improvement of cooking.

With support from the Van Zuiden Charity Trust and the Sir Robert Ho Tung Charitable Fund, table-top autoclaves, physiotherapy equipment including laser therapy machine, micro current therapy machine and ceiling-mounted hoist, were acquired to meet with the needs of the frail elderly. In addition, a ramp for access to the stage inside the assembly hall for the wheelchair-bound residents was installed.

OCCUPATION SAFETY AND HEALTH
The in-house Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Committee continued to hold regular meetings on quarterly basis to deliberate on issues relating to maintenance of occupational safety inside the Home. This year, we emphasized on the manual handling work procedures on 'Think first before action' among staff. The Emergency Guide was updated and revised. Safety Work Guides on use of display screen equipment, proper handling of wheelchairs, working in environment of high temperature, proper usage of supportive devices and physiotherapy equipment were compiled to meet with the Service Quality Standard No.9.

Annual manual handling assessment for all staff was completed in January, 2005. Staff involved in working with the display screen equipment had undertaken the assessment according to the Ordinance on Display Screen Equipment. To alert caring staff to perform the transfer and lifting tasks properly, notices of 'One-person Transfer', 'Two-person Transfer' and 'Use Hoist' were posted up at residents' bedside as a reminder.

Apart from devising OSH training plan in various service teams, orientation on manual handling had been a focus for new staff members. In-service training held in the Home and sponsorship of staff to attend external courses continued in the year under review. There was a total of 214 staff by headcount attended 45 OSH courses or workshops in the year.With support of the Lotteries Fund, we acquired bath trolleys, mini hoist, standing hoist, multiglide glove, multiglide sheet, transfer belt and corsets for prevention of work injuries. Besides, corsets had been distributed to frontline staff who were required to perform manual handling tasks.

COMMUNITY LIAISON
The Superintendent was appointed as member of the Regional Appeal Committee (RAC) for New Territories West Region for a term of two years.

Besides, other than being a committee member of the Elderly Services Co-ordinating Committee of the 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 A Plenty for the Golden Year".In addition, the Superintendent continued to serve at the Tuen Mun Hospital NT-West Geriatric Services Consultative and Advisory

Yuen Long Home for the Aged Blind

GENERAL SITUATION
To go in line with government's promotion of community care for the elderly, in September, 04, the Yuen Long Home For the Aged Blind was approved of converting the 58 Old People Home Places into 20 additional Care and Attention Places. The conversion exercise would be carried out by two phases. As from 1 January, 2005, the new capacity for C&A cum Infirmary was 70 and by September, 2005, the final capacity for Yuen Long Home would be 80 (60 C&A and 20 Infirmary places). During the period under review, 1 resident was newly admitted and 10 residents passed away. Twenty-eight residents were internally transferred to the Care-and-attention Section from Old People Home Section, 2 residents were transferred to the Infirmary Unit from the Care-and-attention Section and 2 residents were transferred to other Homes of the Society.

 

 

MEDICAL AND HEALTH CARE SERVICE Community Geriatric Assessment Service (CGAS) from the Tuen Mun Hospital continued to render their on-site medical consultation service once a month to our residents who suffered from chronic illness that was welcomed by our residents. During the year under review, a total of 206 by headcount received the service.

 

In addition, a private medical practitioner, Dr Ip came on every Tuesday and Friday under the visiting doctor scheme launched since 1998 to provide general medical consultation service to our residents. Over the past eight years, Dr Ip had established mutual trust with our residents and his dedication was highly appreciated by residents and staff members of the Home. During the year under review, 1,086 residents by headcount received the visiting medical service. Medical attendance at clinics recorded a total of 1183 by headcount and 67 by headcount for hospitalization.

 

 

SOCIAL WORK SERVICES "To activate living, to achieve happy life" was the service theme of the year 2004/05. Residents were encouraged to widen their exposure by participating in different community activities so as to enrich their life experience and got a fruitful achievement in life. During the year under review, the more capable aged blind took part in news discussion groups, mini Olympic game and etc. organized by the social work team to echo the service theme.

 

The web-based Client Information System (CIS) was formally launched in October, 2004, the formulation of the Individual Care Plan (ICP) and progress review had been done under regular exchange among different professional teams on the computer. Regular case reviews was done to monitor individual progress. Over the year, a total of 92 Individual Care Plans had been reviewed and 31 new Individual Care Plans had been made for new C&A cases.

MAJOR RENOVATION
Funding application to the Lotteries Fund for support of a major renovation had been submitted in 2002 and a grant of about 4 million was approved in May, 2003. After the appointment of Authorized Person in January 2004, the project architect had started reviewing the scope of work for the major renovation. However, to comply with government's long-term care policy for the elderly, the Yuen Long Home for the Aged Blind had to undergo conversion of all existing OPH places into C&A places in 2005 by phases. Therefore, the major renovation programme of the Home had to be revised in line with the conversion plan. For the said reason, the major renovation was forced to defer until the renovation work relating to conversion had been finalized and approved.

 

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT In the year 2004/05, the Superintendent of the Home continued to serve as a member of the Yuen Long District Rehabilitation Service Coordinating Committee of the Social Welfare Department and NT-West Geriatric Services Consultative & Advisory Committee under the Department of Medicine & Geriatrics of the Tuen Mun Hospital. The Social Worker and the Superintendent also participated actively as member of the Community Education Working Group under the Yuen Long District Rehabilitation Service Coordinating Committee, and the Yuen Long District Elderly Service Joint Function under the Yuen Long District Elderly Service Coordinating Committee respectively. Besides, the Superintendent was invited to join the vetting committee of Yuen Long District 2004/05 Opportunities for the Elderly Project.

 

During the year, we received a total of 31 visits from schools, volunteer groups and charity organizations. The visits provided residents opportunities of getting into social contact with different social groups of the society.

Morning Glory Day Activity Centre cum Hostel

GENERAL SITUATION
During the year under review, there was one new admission to the Morning Glory Day Activity Centre cum Hostel to fill the vacancy arose from the resident who passed away in last summer. The total capacity and the enrolment for both sections were 62, representing an occupancy rate of 100%. Each trainee was given 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%. The achievement met the output standards set under the 'Funding and Service Agreement'.

 

 

SOCIAL WORK SERVICES In order to collect the feedback and opinions of parents on our service, all social workers had conducted home visits and invited parents to attend the case conferences. Parents gave positive feedback to our training programmes and residential care and took active participation in our programme activities.

 

 

During the year, the Social Work Team conducted a face-to-face survey with our trainees to find out their work preferences and leisure interests. Some indicated the wish to be a messenger and some as salesman. About 16% indicated their preference to be a member of music band. Simulated jobs had been designed for the trainees to give them an opportunity to try out their work preference. We were glad to see the remarkable ability demonstrated by a number of our trainees who were able to learn to play piano and sing pop songs, to dance, to run their small business in the staff canteen and to serve the blind elders in the Aged Home.

 

The Parent Association continued to promote mutual support and sharing among members this year. Four gatherings had been held and they maintained regular friendly visits and telephone contacts with one another to show care and concern through a district network. Most of the parents also took active participation in volunteers work of the Centre and attended the Quarterly Parents-Staff Sharing Meetings.

 

In February 2005, 4 trainees and 6 parents of the Centre and the Bradbury Home were elected for the "Shamshuipo District Outstanding Disabled and Carers for the Disabled Award 2004".

A total of 85 persons including trainees, parents, volunteers and staff of the Morning Glory DAC cum Hostel and Bradbury Home joined the two-day tour to Zhong Shan on 12 and 13 June 04. The weather was hot but fine. Most of the participants enjoyed the traditional drama and music performance very much.

 

 

TRAINING  Apart from the delivery of case work and family support services, the Social Work Team paid much efforts in the delivery of a number of multi-intelligence interests groups, and emotional and behavioral therapeutic groups for our trainees. Four specialized group training programmes started on 26 April 2004. Social workers and Therapists worked as a team to run the groups. The first group named "Practice makes perfect - work training programme." The second one named "Gotta love those - Arts Diversity Group". The third one named, "Do, Re, Me - Music Diversity Group" and the last one named "Yum, Yum, Yum - Behavioral and emotional relaxation group". The group leaders had given trainees undue tolerance and patience to develop their self-confidence, to act out their emotions, to try new tasks, to accept change and to develop new hobbies.

 

During the year under review, the Training Team promoted the "Happy Learning Day Training Programme" for trainees to make full use of their senses, abilities and motivation to enhance their daily living skills, to develop healthy living styles and positive self-image, to participate in social and leisure activites actively. Special programme includes aromatherapy, role-playing, news reporting programme, trainees' broadcasting channels, drama, arts therapy and sensory stimulation programmes were designed for trainees with special needs. For the deafblind trainees, the progress of using the tactual-sign language and communication books did help them a lot.

 

During the year, a visually impaired music tutor was recruited who work with a sighted volunteer to teach our trainees in piano-playing and other musical instruemnts. They add braille label and large print on the keyboard for the visually impaired students. Trainees enjoyed the process of learning such as fingering exercise, memory and attention training, and practice exercise. They could play simple songs that their parents were impressed of their learning attitudes and effort made.

 

To address the needs of the handicapped trainees with different degrees of sensory loss, multi-sensory therapy was adopted to create stimulation by using interactive switches and a variety of sound making equipment. The therapy had been proved to trainees with behavioural problems. They became less frustrated when they stayed alone or interacted with others. There were 25 trainees receiving regular multi-sensory therapy which contributed to 40% of the total numbers of clients for the year. Moreover, 13 trainees attended regular fine motor training.

 

The setting up of the Sensory Garden was another milestone to concretize the adoption of multi-intelligence approach in the rehabilitation of multiply handicapped blind to develop their social, language, sensory and leisure skills among trainees with special needs. Gardening activities and small group training that made use of the various sensory simulative facilities in the Sensory Garden enhance trainees' social interaction, enjoyment of leisure, and training of their gross and fine motor functions and coordination. Parents welcomed the new programme and they had regular gathering and barbecue programme with our trainees in the Sensory Garden for enhancement of more intimate relationship.

 

To strengthen the communication skill training programme, we vigorously put forward the application of Calendar Box, pocket Talker and tactile signs for the needy trainees. In addition, the training team launched the "In-house Orientation and Mobility Campaign" with an aim to encourage trainees to use self-protective techniques in their daily living and teach them how to walk safely. To facilitate trainees' memorization of the key points of the self-protective technique, staff made some slogans. Trainees were glad to take part in the campaign and they liked the slogan a lot.

Meanwhile, there were evening groups and weekend programmes organized, namely, "Knowing you and me", "Sex Education", the "Chit Chat Friends Club" and the "DJ" group to enrich residents' life experience.

 

MEDICAL AND HEALTH CARE
To strengthen nursing care, the Guide for Prevention and Handling of Infectious Disease, Pest Control, Drug management and Skin Care had been refined. Four health talks and educational seminars had been organized for trainees, family members and staff of MGCH, on "Nutrition" and "Special Diet for Diabetic Menis", "Health Care for Hypertension Patients", "Dental and Oral Care" and "Promotion of Balanced Diet". Thanks were due to doctor and nursing officer of the Outreaching Service of Siu Lam Hospital and staff of the Department of Health who delivered the talks. During the year, the Psychiatrist and nursing officer of the Outreaching Service of Siu Lam Hospital continued to render service to our clients.

As a majority of our residents were approaching middle age, early detection of health problems for early intervention was considered necessary. During the year under review, residents had been arranged for attending body check, breast check, dental and oral health check plus eye-check service.

 

 

IMPROVEMENT OF TRAINING FACILITIES  During the year under review, funding support had been sought from the Rotary Fund, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited, and the Lotteries Fund to purchase a series of gross motor and sensory stimulation therapeutic training aids for improvement of the rehabilitation outcome.

 

VOLUNTEER SERVICE
During the year, the Jockey Club Rehabilitation Engineering Centre of the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong provided computer training to our trainees. Also, two groups of volunteers from the Hong Kong Baptist University and the Summer Volunteer Programme organized jointly by the Hong Kong & China Gas and Ming Pao provided volunteer services to service users of the Holiday Care Programme, and rendered assistance to the library work of the Deaf-blind Rehabilitation Project respectively.

Under the support of the Social Service Fund of Social Service Group of the Hong Kong University, a series of volunteer training and befrienders programme, named "We are Happy Together" was launched from 17 to 31 July 2004 during weekends. The newly recruited volunteers visited trainees of the Centre and the Bradbury Home and escorted trainees for community visits.

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION
Six residents of the Morning Glory DAC cum Hostel and the Bradbury Home joined the singing contest to celebrate the 55th Anniversary of the National Day and attended the Finale of the Contest at Ko Shan Theater on 26 September 2004.

In addition, eight residents of the Morning Glory DAC cum Hostel and Bradbury Home joined the dinner for celebrating of the 55th Anniversary of the National Day on 26 September 2004. They enjoyed the dinner and amazed at the wonderful performance.

Four trainees and six staff members of the Morning Glory DAC cum Hostel and Bradbury Home took part in the "Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau & Taipei Rehabilitation Seminar" held at Guangzhou in November 2004 to meet mentally handicapped persons and rehabilitation workers from China, Macau and Taipei. The 4-days tour was meaningful as our trainees had the opportunity to meet with new friends and learn how their blind friends lead their lives.

A group of trainees and parents, volunteers of the Morning Glory DAC cum Hostel and Bradbury Home attended the three marathon concerts held on 19 December 2004 at Tsuen Wan Plaza, 9 January 2005 at Shatin New Town Plaza and the Charity Concert on 23 January 2005 at the Baptist University Academic Community Hall respectively to show our support to the fund-raising programme of the Parents Resource Centre for Visually Impaired Children of the Society. Some trainees gave performance at the marathon concerts and they enjoyed the moments to give performance on stage.

 

STAFF TRAINING
During the year, staff members had been encouraged to attend different staff training and development programmes including talks on using the Client Information System, I T Support on Account work, Computer Training and Information Technology, Health training and Personal Care Skills, Prevention of infectious diseases, Occupational Health and Safety, Prevention of Fire, Knowledge and Skills in conducting effective training, sighted-guide techniques, as well as a series of seminars on welfare policies and services development. The total number of attendance for the above training programmes during the year was 520 by head-count.

Staff Retreats for the year were launched in April and August, 04 respectively. A total of 72 staff members by headcount attended. At the meetings, there were good sharing among staff for better service collaboration and improvement.

 

Six staff members had been sponsored to take part in the Exchange Tour to Guangzhou in January 2005 to enhance their understanding of rehabilitation services development in Guangzhou. After returning to Hong Kong, they conducted report-back session for other staff members for a sharing, and to play an active part to contribute ideas for continual service improvement.

During the year, all social workers of the Centre and Bradbury Home had attended the training on the Standardized Assessment for Residential Care for the Disabled organized by the Social Welfare Department (SWD) and became the assessors to assess the service needs of the mentally handicapped for residential care. Meanwhile, members of the Parents Association attended the briefing session conducted by SWD to learn more about the new policy and to express their concerns.

HOLIDAY CARE PROGRAMME
The Holiday Care Programme continued to render support to needy parents of disabled children during weekends and school holidays in order to relieve parents from stress arising from rendering care to their disabled children. During the year, the total number of attendance was 2,910 and the total numbers of new case was 29. The average of attendance rate for the year was 105.6% which exceeded the agreed level of attendance under the Funding and Service Agreement. According to the survey result of parents' feedback, they were very satisfied with the services rendered.

 

Bradbury Home

GENERAL SITUATION
During the year under review, the total capacity and the enrolment of Bradbury Home was ten, including 4 males and 6 females, representing an occupancy rate of 100%. The rate of achieving the Individual Service Plan was 100% that met with the output standard set in the Funding and Service Agreement.

 

SOCIAL WORK SERVICES During the year, various personal growth and mutual support groups were organized for residents such as "Stages of lives", "Talking about Sex" and "Managing our mood". In addition, tutors and volunteers from the St. Mary Volunteers and student volunteers of the Polytechnic University of HK had been recruited to start a bible group for our residents and to teach them in arts and craft, use of computer and playing musical instruments. Residents had been encouraged to develop their personal hobbies and talents in order to make their leisure life more meaningful and enjoyable. During the year, the Hostel Supervisor made home visits to residents?families and encouraged them to participate in the activities organised by the Parents Association of the Morning Glory DAC cum Hostel. Special concerns and psychological support were given to the needy families facing death. Regular home visits and contacts with the aged parents of the residents helped to relax family stress and promote better parent-child relationship.

MEDICAL AND HEALTH CARE

 

In October 2004, the residents of the Bradbury Home attended body check and joined the motor training programme of the Morning Glory DAC cum Hostel. Health talks on prevention of infectious disease and keeping personal hygiene had been organized for our residents for better self-care against infections. They were encouraged to have healthy diet and to do exercise regularly. In January 2005, seven residents attended dental check up for better oral care.

 

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION 
Residents of the Bradbury Home took part in the activity named "Planting Day" organized by the Shamshuipo District Board in June, 04.

During the year, the Caritas Kowloon City District Community Centre sought funding support from the District Board to launch a social integration programme, named "Dancing Together" for our residents in the form of dancing class in October 2004. In November 2004, nine of them, including both volunteers and residents, gave a dance performance at the dancing show organized by the Community Centre. The feedback from the audience was good and it was really a good experience of bringing volunteers and residents together to give a dancing performance.

 

In addition, the Hostel Supervisor encouraged residents to pay visits to other agencies and attended the public forums on welfare policies and services development. Having given the chance to express their views, residents of the Bradbury Home were motivated to share their views and expressed their personal concerns in social participation. They were excited and felt being respected. In response to the survey on the study of the Residential Needs of the Mild Grade Mentally Handicapped Adults conducted by the Mentally Handicapped Network Committee of the Hong Kong Council of Social Services, the Hostel Supervisor encouraged 55 service users of the Bradbury Home and the Factory for The Blind to fill out the questionnaires. The Survey report would be released by mid 2005. The Hostel Supervisor and one of the residents, joined one of the working groups of the Organizing Committee of the Second Hong Kong Mentally Handicapped Conference scheduled in July, 2005. The residents had become more and more mature in expressing their point of views during the working group meetings and had learned to share with other residents about the work progress of the conference.

 

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Conclusion
A harmonious society means people with different abilities; different level of education, different beliefs and different background can co-exist with mutual respect. We are willing to extend our hands to those in need in order that they can share the opportunities offered by the community. We are grateful to our Council members (under the leadership of our Chairman, Mr Clive Oxley), our many volunteers who have been devoting their time, energy and resources in helping us create a better world for people with visual impairment. Sincere thanks are due to the Social Welfare Department, Education & Manpower Bureau, the Hospital Authority, the Community Chest, the Hong Kong Jockey Club, and many donors for their staunch support to the Society. In the coming years, the Society will continue its efforts in making contributions to Hong Kong and the community's assistance and participation will be needed in this regard.

Grace Chan
Chief Executive