Opinion | I was wrong: Hong Kong does need domestic helpers for elderly care

Peter Kammerer’s own experience of caring for his frail mother has changed his mind on what Hong Kong’s ageing population needs. Having more domestic workers will give struggling families an option that should not be dismissed out of hand

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Four women aged between 76 and 99 enjoy a ride on the Hong Kong Observation Wheel at the Central waterfront last December, as part of a trip organised by young volunteers for single elderly people or those in residential care. Government figures show that about 150,000 elderly people in Hong Kong were living alone in 2016, accounting for 10 per cent of the city’s population aged 65 or above. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 4:47pm, 9 Apr 2018Updated: 7:33pm, 9 Apr 2018

Those who write columns have to eat their words from time to time. The piece of humble pie I have before me is impressive. I now acknowledge that my earlier belief, that it is wrong for a family to employ a domestic helper to take care of a frail parent, is flawed. How I wish that I had such an option at hand with providing for my elderly mother in Australia.

Labour and Welfare Secretary Dr Law Chi-kwong earned my ire last November for suggesting that Hong Kong needed an additional 240,000 maids in the next 30 years to help with our fast-ageing population. I responded by calling the idea dumb because elderly people often have specific medical and care needs that require well-trained professionals. Maids were a cheap patch to a problem; we don’t need women from Southeast Asian villages fresh off planes but, rather, health centres staffed by social workers, dietitians, nurses, physiotherapists, psychiatrists and doctors, in addition to well-run residential facilities for the aged. To see maids as a solution is to avoid having to make decisions like assessing community needs, building infrastructure and hiring staff.

The sight of a small Indonesian woman struggling with a wheelchair-bound old man in a Kai Tak public estate had convinced me I was right. A trip to visit former neighbours living at Tanner Hill, a well-managed and services-packed retirement home in North Point operated by the Hong Kong Housing Society, told me our city is readily able to cater for the needs of the elderly.