Conundrum faced by elders in residential care services in Hong Kong

Abstract

Hong Kong implements an aging policy involving the core themes of “aging in place as the core,” “institutional care as backup” and “continuum of care.” Top priority is assigned to encouraging elders to stay at home, whereas elders who are not able to live at home independently are provided with a variety of residential care services, namely Hostels for the Elderly, Homes for the Aged, Care and Attention (C&A) Homes for the Elderly, and Nursing Homes (NHs). The subsidized residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs) clearly outperform private RCHEs in terms of spacing and staffing provisions, but the supply of subsidized RCHEs cannot meet demand. The most urgent task is to increase the availability of subsidized RCHEs according to demand. Several viable measures involve purchasing Enhanced Bought Place Schemes (EBPSs) from private RCHEs, subsidizing elders who opt for living in private RCHEs by Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) and Residential Care Service Voucher (RCSV) and subsidizing elderly applicants who opt for living in RCHEs in Guangdong. These viable measures, however, are problematic because of inadequate quality of EBPSs and private RCHEs, which is attributed to the pricing and costing arrangement of public and private RCHEs in colonial period.