The basic principle underlying services for the elders is to provide senior citizens with a sense of security, a sense of belonging and a feeling of health and worthiness. The aim is to promote the well-being of those persons aged 60 and over in all aspects of their life through provision of services that will enable them to remain active members of the community for as long as possible, and, to the extent necessary, to provide residential care suited to their varying needs.

    Community support services are provided to elders who require assistance to continue living at home. Support is also provided for their carers. At year-end, there were 35 multi-service centres for elders, three district elderly community centres, 139 home help teams, 25 home care teams, 25 meal teams, 18 enhanced home and community care services teams, 44 day-care centres/units for elders, two carers' support centres, 214 social centres for elders, two neighbourhood elderly centres, 38 support teams for elders and one holiday centre for elders. Under the Senior Citizen Card Scheme, 848 538 Senior Citizen Cards were issued by year-end. A total of 8 289 companies, organisations, government departments with 11 883 units and outlets, and 1 671 medical units with 1 875 branches participated in the scheme to provide concessions, discounts and priority services to senior citizens.

    Residential care is provided for elders who need care in their daily living which can be provided only in a residential setting. At year-end, there were 166 hostel places, 7 431 homes for the aged places, 11 303 care-and-attention home places and 1 484 nursing home places. To increase the supply of subsidised residential care services, the Bought Place Scheme for private homes for the elders was introduced in 1989 and an Enhanced Bought Place Scheme was launched in November 1998. At year-end, 5 841 places were bought from private care homes. Admissions to subsidised residential care services are coordinated by the Residential Care Services Delivery System for the Elders.

    The Residential Care Homes (Elderly Persons) Ordinance, which provides legislative control over all residential care homes for the elders, came into full operation on June 1, 1996. All private homes for the elders were licensed by end-March 2001. At year-end, 563 valid licenses were issued to private residential care homes for the elders with a total capacity of 43 754 places. In addition, 2 936 places are provided in self-financing homes operated by NGOs.

    During the year, there was significant enhancement in the provision of formal care services for the elders, with an addition of 2 401 care-and-attention home places and 84 nursing home places, two neighbourhood elderly centres, two district elderly community centres, 200 day care places and two support teams for elders.

    The SWD has launched a region-wide Opportunities for the Elderly Project from 1999 to 2003 to provide subsidies to community organisations to plan and implement programmes to promote a sense of worthiness among elders and community care for elders. In 2002, 358 programmes were implemented, with the approved grants amounting to $3.03 million. These programmes were complementary to the three-year Healthy Ageing Campaign launched by the Elderly Commission in 2000–2001.

    As from 1999, the SWD has introduced competitive bidding in identifying providers of elderly services with the objective of securing quality and value for money services so as to benefit a greater number of elders. Services currently procured through this process include meal service, home care service, enhanced home and community care services and residential care homes for the elders. The quality of service is governed by service contracts, underpinned by rigorous monitoring by the department's Contract Management Section.

    In the prevention of elderly suicide, the SWD has joined hands with the Hong Kong Council of Social Service and the Hong Kong Psychogeriatric Association to co-organise a three-year Joint Project on Prevention of Elderly Suicide from mid-2001. The project supports community education programmes, provides hotline service, volunteer visits, casework counselling and psychiatric consultation for elders at suicidal risk. As part of the project, an Asia-Pacific Regional Conference will be held in May 2003.

    Two NGOs continued to operate a three-year pilot project on prevention and handling of elder abuse which had been launched in April 2001 with the support of the Lotteries Fund. The services provided by these projects include community education, hotline service, volunteer visits, mutual support groups, short-term counselling and health promotion programmes. Another NGO has been commissioned to carry out a two-year project, with a Lotteries Fund grant and starting from February 2002, to conduct research on the phenomenon of elder abuse, develop a multi-professional protocol in handling elder abuse cases, and design a computerised elder abuse registry.