bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Jennifer Ngo

The support teams that help elderly people reintegrate into the community after a stint in hospital are having trouble hiring enough frontline staff to keep up with demand.
Vital tasks include delivering meals, bathing patients and house cleaning.


Another problem is that the three-month limit for transitional care to help the elderly become independent again is too short, says Twiggy Chow Tsui, Haven of Hope’s elderly community services operations general manager.
“It’s very hectic and the cases come and go quickly,” she said. “Sometimes we have to start providing help the moment the elderly step out of the hospital – like home transport and the first meal – at very short notice.”
Sometimes after three months, you see the improvement in the elderly. But we know that it wasn’t enough
Twiggy Chow Tsui, Haven of Hope
Haven of Hope is the NGO arm for the Integrated Care and Discharge Support service for three hospitals in East Kowloon.
Chow is in charge of two teams providing the services in Kwung Tong and Tseung Kwan O. They function at full capacity, taking up to 20 cases a day.
“Sometimes after three months, you see the improvement in the elderly. But we know that it wasn’t enough and a lot of the frontline workers feel uncomfortable to let the case go,” she said. “We also have problems hiring frontline staff.”
If services could be extended to six months, it would make a huge difference, she said.
Chow recalled an elderly man who came to their team after a two-month stint in hospital for a bad fall. She was shocked when she visited the old man’s home. He was sleeping in the living room and relied on an office chair with wheels to get from his bedside to the bathroom and kitchen.
The man had once lived with his mother and a domestic helper, but she had died a long time ago and his two cats were then his only companions.
“I later found out that he made the painful decision to move into a residential home,” she said. “I wondered who took his cats and whether we could’ve done more, had we more time.”
While hospitals perform the medical assessments to see if a patient qualifies for help, the service providers are NGOs – a rare cross-department and cross-disciplinary service in which medical and community care professionals come together.
Chow said a lot of patients who came to them in Kwun Tong district lived alone, while those from Tseung Kwan O tended to live with family. For elderly who live alone, transitional care became an important support, she added.


Three months’ transitional care  not enough to help elderly get back on their feet, say Hong Kong support workers

A male patient has died, and another remains in hospitals, after allegedly being attacked by another elderly resident of a care home in Tseung Kwan O in the morning. Haven of Hope Woo Ping Care & Attention Home in Tseung Kwan O.06APR16 SCMP/ David Wong

News

Hong Kong

Health & Environment

Overstretched staff provide vital help such as bathing patients and delivering meals
