The SAR government has consistently adhered to the elderly care policy of "aging in place as the mainstay, supplemented by residential care services," Hong Kong Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun recently emphasized in an exclusive interview with Wen Wei Po. The government, according to him, is working to optimize elderly care facilities and improve service quality, including strengthening community support networks, continuously increasing local residential care supply, and purchasing mainland medical insurance for the elderly.
Nowadays, Hong Kong's population continues to age, with the proportion of residents aged 65 or above rising to 23% of the total population. To make it worse, it is projected to further increase to 36% by 2046, resulting in a growing demand for elderly care services and caregiver support.
For the 2025/26 fiscal year alone, the government has allocated a recurrent expenditure budget of up to HK$130.4 billion for social welfare, accounting for 22.2% of the overall government recurrent expenditure—the highest among all policy areas.
Sun stated that the current priorities in social welfare are to focus on two key initiatives: first, establishing a dynamic high-risk database for the elderly and persons with disabilities; second, ensuring the smooth implementation of the Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse Ordinance, which will take effect in January next year.
Integrating social welfare & medical records to serve people in need
Regarding the dynamic high-risk database, Sun hopes to first integrate fragmented social welfare and medical records (such as elderly hospitalization data) scattered across different departments and agencies.
"We aim to shift from the previous passive model of waiting for requests for help to proactively identifying and intervening in high-risk households, thereby more precisely serving groups in need," he said.
Beyond the database, he noted that 97% of Hong Kong's elderly prefer aging at home, making it crucial to optimize elderly care facilities and improve service quality.
"Realizing aging in place requires substantial support, including elderly center services, the Community Care Service Voucher Scheme, and funding to promote gerontechnology, all to help seniors stay in their communities and enjoy their later years as much as possible," he explained.
He also noted that the SAR government will significantly strengthen community support networks in the future. For example, if an elderly person falls but does not wish to leave home for hospitalization, the government will provide gerontechnology products and assist with home modifications.
One phenomenon of population aging is the emergence of many "elderly caring for elderly" and "elderly caring for disabled" households, placing immense pressure on caregivers.
Sun said the current-term SAR government is actively responding to this issue. In addition to financial support and launching a 24-hour caregiver support hotline, it has also initiated a three-year caregiver awareness campaign.
The caregiver support hotline has been operational for about 20 months, receiving a total of 94,000 calls for help as of the end of May this year.
Sun revealed that most callers seek emotional support. "For example, due to low mood or encountering insurmountable difficulties, many also inquire about community resources, while some involve financial or family issues. So far, 1,600 cases have been referred to professional social welfare agencies for follow-up."
Some cases were assessed as critical, with about 160 requiring immediate outreach intervention by social workers. Another 190 cases had their temporary respite care needs resolved.
Guangdong residential care homes increase to 15
The SAR government has continuously increased care home capacity through construction and purchasing places while enhancing service quality by amending the Residential Care Homes Ordinance.
Under the Residential Care Services Scheme in Guangdong, the number of participating care homes has grown from just two in Shenzhen and Zhaoqing when Sun took office to 15 currently.
Sun said over 400 Hong Kong elderly have relocated to mainland care homes through the program, alleviating pressure on local facilities while providing seniors with more choices.
"They can voluntarily choose to return to their hometowns or opt for mainland care homes with better environments. Mainland care homes generally offer better space, staffing, and activity options than Hong Kong's," he noted.
He added that the SAR government will introduce medical support in the second half of this year, purchasing local mainland medical insurance for participating seniors.
"We've calculated that even if an elderly person requires heart surgery and a fracture operation within a year, the annual co-payment cap of HK$30,000 for hospitalization should be sufficient," he said.
(Source: Wen Wei Po; Journalist: Zhang Xian: English Editor: Darius)
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