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Emily Hung

Hong Kong welfare authorities are hoping to establish a database of at-risk elderly within the next two years, bringing together information from various departments and other entities following a string of tragedies involving older residents.
Speaking at the Jockey Club’s Philanthropy for Better Cities Forum on Tuesday, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han said the government aimed to make use of “the big data already in place” to support such residents.
The minister said authorities’ current response to tragedies involving at-risk elderly residents tended to be “reactive”, adding that he wanted to adopt a more active approach.
“Can we make use of all the big data already in place? Just say for the Social Welfare Department, we have huge [sets] of data, but in different pockets,” he said.
Potentially useful data ranged from social security records to public hospital patient information, but they were held by different organisations such as the department, the Hospital Authority, the Housing Authority or even NGOs and energy firms.
“Can we find a way to connect [such] data? Let the data help each other so that we can identify those elderly families that will be at risk?” he said.
The minister said the city had many households comprising two people who took care of one another, but warned they could become vulnerable to tragedy if one fell ill or was diagnosed with dementia.
The government could send someone to check up on such households if they had access to hospital databases, allowing authorities to respond to such cases in a timely manner, he added.
“Older people will usually overestimate their abilities, they don’t think they need help until a tragedy or something [else] really bad happens,” Sun said.
The minister said the data could pinpoint a resident’s individual needs, as well as help to obtain a stronger demographic picture of at-risk households.

Such data could also help authorities devise more targeted support strategies, instead of going door-to-door without any prior information, he said.
“This is what I’ve been quite fascinated with. I believe the technology is here. The data are here. What we need to do is to work together to find a way to make use of the data … Let’s find them out before something bad happens to them,” he said.
“This is what I hope to achieve in the coming one or two years.”
Lawmakers, social workers and academics have called for a centralised database to help monitor at-risk elderly residents following a string of family tragedies in recent years.
Many incidents have been described as “hidden cases” that welfare organisations were unaware of.
One of the most recent cases emerged when a bedridden 82-year-old woman and her 60-year-old son were found dead at their Kwun Tong flat in early August, with investigators believing the man died first, leaving no one to take care of his mother.
The case prompted the Ombudsman to launch an investigation into the city’s respite care services.
The government earlier introduced a raft of initiatives to support vulnerable families, such as setting up a 24-hour support hotline and sending community care teams to identify and help high-risk households.


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Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun says he hopes to bring together useful data from authorities and NGOs to better support elderly


Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun says he hopes to bring together useful data from authorities and NGOs to better support elderly.


Hong Kong healthcare and hospitals

Ageing society