Handbook on Employment of Persons with a Disability - Support Services

[Excerpt] Nowadays, more and more employers are willing to employ persons with a disability after learning about their working capacity. However, some employers who wish to offer them employment opportunities might have concern over their accommodation in workplace and have reservation about employing them. In fact, there are various services offered by different organisations with a view to facilitating open employment of persons with a disability so that they could fit in to their work and integrate into society. This handbook is published by the Selective Placement Division of the Labour Department in order to enhance the confidence of employers who have already employed disabled staff or those who wish to employ persons with a disability by introducing a range of support services and the means through which these services could be acquired. We hope that by introducing these support services to employers and disabled employees, the working relationship between them will be enhanced

Breastfeeding and weaning practices among Hong Kong mothers: a prospective study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Breastfeeding provides optimal and complete nutrition for newborn babies. Although new mothers in Hong Kong are increasingly choosing to breastfeed their babies, rates of exclusive breastfeeding are low and duration remains short. The purpose of this study was to describe the breastfeeding and weaning practices of Hong Kong mothers over the infant's first year of life to determine the factors associated with early cessation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cohort of 1417 mother-infant pairs was recruited from the obstetric units of four public hospitals in Hong Kong in the immediate post-partum period and followed prospectively for 12 months or until weaned. We used descriptive statistics to describe breastfeeding and weaning practices and multiple logistic regression to investigate the relationship between maternal characteristics and breastfeeding cessation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>At 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months only 63%, 37.3%, 26.9%, and 12.5% of the infants respectively, were still receiving any breast milk; approximately one-half of breastfeeding mothers were exclusively breastfeeding. Younger mothers, those with a longer duration of residence in Hong Kong, and those returning to work postpartum were more likely to wean before 1 month. Mothers with higher education, previous breastfeeding experience, who were breastfed themselves and those who were planning to exclusively breastfeed and whose husbands preferred breastfeeding were more likely to continue breastfeeding beyond 1 month. The introduction of infant formula before 1 month and returning to work postpartum were predictive of weaning before 3 months.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Breastfeeding promotion programs have been successful in achieving high rates of breastfeeding initiation but the focus must now shift to helping new mothers exclusively breastfeed and sustain breastfeeding for longer.</p