As our population is aging rapidly, the government has been actively promoting aging in place in the sense that the elderly can live healthily and receive care in their community. More and more elderly people are expected to go through an end of life care journey in community.  In response to this, the sector is actively developing a wide variety of life and death education, and community-based palliative care services. In October of last year, The Council organized a delegation to join the 8th Public Health Palliative Care International Conference and visit related service organizations in Switzerland in order to learn from the experiences of other countries in developing end-of-life agenda in community. To enrich the sector with more experience of developing life and death education and related service at community, our Council is organizing "Report Back Session on the 8th Public Health Palliative Care International Conference and Switzerland Study Visit" on 25th March, 2025, inviting delegates including Dr. Lam Ching-choi, Chief Executive Officer of Haven of Hope Christian Service, Ms. Shirley Wong, Service Supervisor of the Salvation Army and Mr. Norman Kwan, Officer of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service to share insights on the development of palliative ...

The Hong Kong Council of Social Service (the Council) has ever committed through research and advocacy to the co-discovery of social needs and the promotion of service and policy development with the sector. In the past years, the Council has organized conferences and workshops related to research and advocacy, aiming to encourage the sector to share relevant frontline experiences, thereby fostering learning and knowledge exchange. In a new era of social media with overloaded information, everyone can construct their own “social reality”, making it difficult for the public to distinguish between truth and falsity. Against this background, it is more than necessary to develop multi-dimensional and cross-sectoral perspective, and together with data and empirical methods, discuss social issues and co-create solutions. The Council will is going to organize a workshop titled “Effective Data Storytelling in Co-shaping the Social Issues,” hoping to nurture this kind of capacity in the sector. Dr Leung Kai-chi who is a public scholar with strong empirical skill and discursive sense in the subject is invited to be a speaker. The workshop will highlight common data fallacies with the examples of past social issues, and introduce how to visualize data and create data story in resonant with ...

The Hong Kong Council of Social Service (the Council) has ever committed through research and advocacy to the co-discovery of social needs and the promotion of service and policy development with the sector. In the past years, the Council has organized conferences and workshops related to research and advocacy, aiming to encourage the sector to share relevant frontline experiences, thereby fostering learning and knowledge exchange. The topic of the annual conference on research and advocacy of the Council is “Co-discovery of the New Trend and Issues of Social Development”. It highlights the role of multi-sectors in shaping social realities and aims to collaboratively explore and construct social trends and issues through data and storytelling. No matter establishing new services or advocating policies, we emphasize using a pragmatic and evidence-based way to grasp social phenomena and trends, and articulating issues in an easily understandable manner to help various sectors recognize social needs and co-create responses. How can we adopt an evidence-based approach to discern the signs of social development, and design appropriate service and policy? Therefore, we have invited various guest speakers from different sectors to share their experiences at the conference, hoping to promote communication between the sectors and other ...

Due to aging population and an increasing number of patients with terminal illness, palliative and end-of-life care has lately become an important topic of concern in Hong Kong recently. In view of the concern over respect to patient self-determination and improvement of their quality of life at the terminal stage, the government will implement the legislative proposal of advance directives and dying in place in this year. To equip the sector with knowledge of the related topics and its impacts on palliative and end-of-life care service development, the Council publishes “Newsletter on Palliative and End-of-Life Care Service”. The issue 9 of the newsletter is “Life and Care Planning for Carer Support” (only Chinese version). Carers encounter not only the challenges of their caregiving responsibilities but also their own living concern. This issue will demonstrate the circumstances and needs of carers through research through case studies and stakeholder discussion; meanwhile, with use of the Australian government's Carer Support Planning Framework, to develop a life and care planning framework for carers. Lastly, it will provide some recommendations for the development of a compassionate community." If you have any enquiries or comments on this publication, please contact Ms. Kelly Chong, Officer (Tel: 28642445; ...

Hong Kong is currently experiencing multiple demographic changes. In addition to an aging population, solo living has been on the rise over the past two decades. There are approximately 589,000 single-person households, accounting for more than 21% of all households in Hong Kong. Furthermore, the proportion of households without marriage or children is increasing, with the city's fertility rate of 0.8 ranking among the lowest globally. With out-migration contributing to a growing population of elderly residents, many individuals are likely to “live solo” in the future. Except those who aspire to an independent life, some people who, due to social factors such as difficulties in socializing, employment transitions, or family changes, find themselves involuntarily living alone as they become separated from others in their life journey. For middle-aged and elderly individuals, especially those in low-income groups, living solo presents challenges in terms of physical and mental health, social connections, finances, living arrangements, and uncertainties about their future. As of today, the mainstream society has not thoroughly understood the causes and consequences of “the solo-ization process”. At the same time, solo dwellers may be unwilling to confide in others, or may internalize or individualize their problems in life, leading to an ...