An exploratory study of informal support and life satisfaction of older persons in Macau

The purpose of the research is to explore the forms of support provided by informal support networks of spouse, adult children, relatives, friends and neighbours for older persons in Macau. The research also attempts to identify the elements that contribute to life satisfaction among active older persons. As little research has been conducted in Macau, this study tries to introduce data and possible suggestions for initiatives in elderly policy in this area. The thesis adopts mainly a qualitative approach in exploring the possible informal support elements that contribute to life satisfaction as perceived by active older persons. Sixty-five in depth interviews with 40 female and 25 male older persons aged from 65 to 90 invited as respondents, all of whom were active and of good health status, were conducted either in old age centers or older persons’ apartments from late July to Mid October in Macau. Triangulation of various sources, the sources of data was employed to cross-check the validity of the initial explanations derived included two focus group discussions, key informant interviews, a review of the published literature, independent member checking as well as content analysis with correlation analysis. Content analysis using open and axial coding identified four major types of support: tangible support, informational support, companionship support and emotional support. The research revealed that children and a spouse mainly provided emotional and tangible support. Companionship support was mainly provided by friends. Information support came the last, and was only important when it comes to crucial issues such as going to hospital, or when wishing to apply for specific services. In terms of the sources of informal support, the findings indicated that adult children are regarded as the primary reliable persons who provided various forms of support for their older parents. This care and support was regarded as obligatory in nature. The second primary support source was spousal. Spouses provided personal daily care for each other. Friends mainly provided companionship support and the support is voluntary in nature. Perhaps unexpectedly, the research found that relatives provided the least frequent support due to distance and sometimes relationships were poor. With respect to the relationship between informal support and life satisfaction, the results obtained by a series of correlation analysis reviewed that being concerned and cared for, respected, providing money for daily necessities, meetings and decisions-making by children are important for older persons and are statistically significant to life satisfaction. The support provided by children can create a sense of security and well being associated with life satisfaction. The mutual care by a spouse creates a sense of security and in turn enhances life satisfaction. Friends provided companionship support in terms of chatting, and participating in social activities, which enrich life quality and contribute to life satisfaction. It is notable that relatives’ support did not contribute very much to life satisfaction. This research suggests the value of strengthening community care services by providing old age allowance, promoting intergeneration education and encouraging older persons to be active in participating in social activities. These can enhance the well being of older persons in Macau. Social policy for older persons should potentially aim at achieving this end

University-school link partnership projects (USLP) for promotion of intergeneration communication

Started as a pilot experiment, the University-School Link Partnership (USLP) was designed to encourage interactions between young and old people. It was first initiated in 2000 and implemented from September 2001 to September 2002. Co-organized by the Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies (APIAS), Lingnan University and the Church of Christ in China Ming Kei College, the USLP involved four schools and ten social welfare organizations with a total of 288 students, 265 older persons and 106 volunteers participating in the project. The aims of the project were to enhance the intergenerational relationship between the young and the older participants through a series of well-structured programmes including training workshops, social service projects, project reports presentation, CD-ROM production, as well as experiences of mutual care and support during an overnight camp. The activities have not only improved the social competence skills of the participants of all ages, but also developed an off-campus curriculum (service learning) for the students and provided insights for elderly service agencies

An exploratory study of older persons\u27 computer and internet usage in Hong Kong

Computer usage and internet access for older persons have been increasingly emphasized in Hong Kong, particularly as a live access tool for keeping frequent contacts with the outside world and the applicability in online medical consultation for those who are frail and isolated. But how are these computer communication technologies being used among the older persons? The question has not been much explored. Hence, this study aims, as a first step, to find out the profiles of older persons using computer aided communications including internet and e-mails. The objectives of the present study are to: measure the proportion of older persons who have access to computers and the Internet in Hong Kong; examine computer usage and online habits of Hong Kong older persons including frequency of use, email capabilities and online activities; determine the percentage who use the Internet for financial or investment purposes; examine Hong Kong older persons’ attitudes to the impact of the Internet on their own investment knowledge, ability and habits; and examine the IT training needs of older persons and the difficulties that may arise, so as to enhance IT teaching in Hong Kong

Service learning among university students through working with South Asian children

The benefits of service learning for the intellectual and personal development of students have been discussed in the past few decades. Jacoby (1996) defines service learning as, “a form of experiential education in which students engage in activities that address human and community needs together with structured opportunities intentionally designed to promote student learning and development”. The idea of using a service-learning approach in teaching curricula is “far from new” (Gray et al, 2000) and the scope of it has been expanding substantially in tertiary education overseas, though it is still not pervasive in Hong Kong. The Lingnan Angels is a service-learning programme designed to offer opportunities for Lingnan University students to learn through serving South Asian children. The programme design has been based on the experiential learning theory (ELT), which is commonly adopted as the theoretical underpinning for service learning (Sheckley & Keetom, 1997). This is a pilot programme for university students in Hong Kong, which was launched by APIAS, Lingnan University, in September 2002. The objectives of the programme are as follows, 1. To provide training and service-learning opportunities for a group of university students in Hong Kong; 2. To examine the learning process and impacts on studetns through serving deprived children in local primary schools; and 3. To explore any implications of service-learning programmes for the university students in Hong Kong

A report on an evaluation of the HOPE, worldwide seniors day 2003

The HOPE worldwide 1 (HWW) in Hong Kong has been chartered as a charity organization since 1993 with its focus on organizing service programmes in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Amongst these, the Hope for Seniors Day is one of the many attempts initiated by the HWW to meet the urgent needs of the growing ageing population in Hong Kong. Starting from 1996, volunteers from corporations and social organizations have been recruited for the Hope for Seniors Day on an annual basis. The programme aims at giving practical assistance to elderly people who are living alone in public housing estates, as well as building up relationship between the volunteers and the elderly. The volunteers help clean and repaint the seniors\u27 homes. In the past 7 years, the programme has already served over 37,000 single elderly people and mobilized more than 15,000 volunteers to participate

An exploratory study on the significance of outbound travelling for the older persons in Hong Kong

Hong Kong has been experiencing demographic ageing with an increasing number of older population and prolonged life expectancy. It is projected that population will increase from 12% in 2004 to 24% in 2031 (Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong, 2002). Older people in the future are expected to be wealthier and healthier and the potential demand for recreational activities will strongly be associated with this group. As highlighted in the Chief Executive of the HKSAR 2001 policy address, the future direction of elderly care and services is to improve the quality of life of older persons, ensuring that they will continue to enjoy a sense of security, belonging and a feeling of good health and worthiness. The report on healthy ageing by the Elderly Commission suggested that promoting physical well-being alone is not enough for older people and therefore a number of ways to enhance their psychological well-being are necessary (Elderly Commission, 2001). The importance of psychological well-being to quality of life of older people and their life expectancy is an integral part of the concept of successful ageing and also forms a main plank in the WHO’s policy framework of active ageing (WHO, 2002). More active social participation or leisure activities are very widely recognized as crucial. According to reports published by the Hong Kong Tourist Association (HKTA, 1998), Hong Kong residents departures to overseas destinations increased from 3.4 million in 1996 to 3.8 million in 1997, representing a growth rate of 9.1%. Although the trend for older people in Hong Kong is not clear from literature and existing data, outbound travelling for older people seems to be a development which is both commercially viable and probably socially desirable. A popular activity to enhance the quality of life of older people in Hong Kong is outbound travelling. The “graying” of population in Hong Kong has aroused the attention of people running overseas tourism and it is not surprising that given the increasing number of older people and the large amount of unoccupied time available to them, this has captured the interest of those examining travel characteristics of the market (Van Harssel, 1994). Indeed, many people identified by demographic age as “elderly” may be cognitively young (Schiffman & Sherman, 1991) and open to innovation in their travel behaviour (Szmigin & Carrigan, 2001). Moreover, in all likelihood, older tourists will be as strongly motivated to travel as younger people (Sharpley, 1994). Thereby, senior travel is becoming a widely recognized aspect for promoting healthy and active ageing. However, the research conducted in Hong Kong concerning the meaning and significance of outbound travelling amongst older people in Hong Kong has been very limited so far. The present research presents an exploratory study on senior travel in the context of Hong Kong and four dimensions are addressed as follows: The motivations for outbound travelling amongst older people in Hong Kong. The perceived barriers to outbound travelling amongst older people in Hong Kong. To describe and analyze the travel modes and activities conducted during outbound travel. To explore the psychological meaning(s) of outbound travel for older people

A report on an exploratory study on visual conditions of older people living in public housing

HOPE worldwide (HWW) has been a chartered charity organization in Hong Kong since 1993, with its focus on organizing service programmes in China and Hong Kong. Volunteers for Seniors Day (formerly Hope for Seniors Day) is one of the many programmes initiated by HWW to meet the urgent needs of the growing ageing population in Hong Kong. Starting in 1996, volunteers from corporations and social organizations have been recruited for Volunteers for Seniors Days on an annual basis. Since 2000, the programme has been jointly organized with the Housing Authority to provide cleaning and painting services to single elderly tenants living in public housing estates. It also helps to build relationships between the volunteers and the elderly people in the community. Over the past nine years, the programme has served over 5,300 single elderly people and mobilized more than 20,000 volunteers to participate. In the survey conducted by HWW during Volunteers for Seniors Day 2004, we found that there were up to 40.1% and 49.6% of the single elderly living in public housing estates suffering from various kinds of eye diseases and poor eyesight respectively. The prevalence of eye diseases and poor eyesight would result in a high percentage of falls and thereby affect their functional activities of daily living (ADL). In fact, most of the eye diseases are curable with early detection and treatment, and elderly people with poor eyesight may need minor home adaptation e.g. handrails or night lights to prevent home accidents. According to a study by the Department of Orthopaedics & Traumatology of Chinese University, exercise is important to the elderly and can strengthen their low-limb and upper-limb muscles, which in turn prevents falls at home or on the street. Due to the above findings, HWW cooperated with Housing Authority to initiate a pilot programme to help identify the eye diseases as well as provide public health education to the elderly in 30 public estates in the second half of 2004. Health care professionals provided training to 150 volunteers on eye care knowledge and simple eye screening tests that could be carried out in road shows in shopping arcades of public housing estates. In addition, experienced ophthalmologists or optometrists were present to answer elderly participants’ inquiries on eye health and delivered health information during the kick-off ceremony and road shows in the shopping arcades. The programme had the following objectives: To enhance the awareness of eye health and eye diseases of the elderly through 30 public eye screenings at public housing arcades; To carry out a survey on the visual conditions of elderly living in public housing; and To foster partnership between government, NGO and business sectors in promoting the health of the elderly in the community

Service-learning and research scheme : the Lingnan model

This Manual is a product of Lingnan University’s pilot SLRS. It aims to provide a framework for interested parties to organize or refine a range of Service-Learning Programs and to develop a comprehensive set of validating instruments that can be used to assess the effectiveness of the SLRS from the varying perspectives of students, course instructors, social service agency supervisors and program coordinators. The specific objectives of this Manual are: (i) To provide useful reference information on Service-Learning to interested parties at Lingnan University and other tertiary institutions. (ii) To provide definitions of the structures, contents and processes of the Lingnan model of Service-Learning (SLRS) and guidance to support implementation. (iii) To provide a set of validation instruments, as developed by Lingnan, for evaluating the effectiveness of the SLRS from the perspective of participants. (iv) To share the summary results of the evaluation of Lingnan’s SLRS pilot. This is the first manual of its kind for running a Service-Learning scheme with the unique characteristics of liberal arts education in Hong Kong.https://commons.ln.edu.hk/osl_book/1004/thumbnail.jp

「社交媒體、視訊會議平台和樂齡產品在長者院舍的應用情況」研究簡報

香港的老年人口增長迅速，從1988年至2018年間，老年人口由46萬增加到127萬（政府經濟顧問辦公室, 2019）。隨著人口老化，長期護理服務需求也相對增加。資助安老院舍的平均等待時間長達20個月（香港政府, 2021）。在2017至2018年間，有40,000人在輪候資助安老院舍，其中6,600人在等候期間去世（香港政府, 2018）。安老服務業一直面臨人力短缺的問題，2017年的相關職位空缺率為15-20%（香港政府, 2017）。2013年的研究統計發現超過一半的安老服務前線員工超過50歲（勞工及福利局, 2019）。隨著退休潮的來臨，人力短缺的問題會進一步加劇。因此，科技與安老服務的結合被視爲減輕人手壓力的方向。結合科技和院舍服務不僅可以減輕工作量，還能提高服務質量和效率。社交媒體和視訊會議平台可以減少在訊息傳遞上的時間和人力成本。樂齡科技產品，諸如可穿戴設備和遠程監控傳感器，可以讓護理人員更快捷和系統化地掌握服務對象的狀態，從而減少親自監測的次數（Chen, 2020）。因此，自2017年起，香港政府與各部門積極推廣樂齡科技，並於2018年設立樂齡及康復創科應用基金，幫助合資格的安老及康復服務單位購置、租借和試用科技產品。香港政府於2022年更將此計劃擴展至其他非資助的私營或自負盈虧的安老院舍及殘疾人士院舍。在過去三年的新冠疫情影響下，大部分安老院舍因為防疫工作量的增加而面臨更嚴重的人手短缺，不少院舍開始將科技融入服務，以應對疫情衍生的需求和改善現有服務質素。然而，香港院舍對於如何應用社交媒體、會議平台和樂齡科技產品的研究甚少。在此背景下，本研究旨在瞭解院舍應用相關科技的情況，並提供應對有關障礙的政策建議

沒有年齡的課室 : 成效評估研究報告

背景 香港人口老齡化的趨勢持續加劇，傳統的家庭照顧模式已難以滿足老年人和幼童在身心發展上的需求，需要探索新的跨代互助模式。因此，和悅社會企業於2023 年夏季舉辦了一項名為「沒有年齡的課室」的計劃（以下簡稱「計劃」/「課程」）。該課程旨在為長者及幼童提供共學的機會，推動跨代連結與互惠。為了更客觀地檢視「沒有年齡的課室」的實施情況與成效，以及探討在香港推行跨代共學的可行性，和悅社會企業委託嶺南大學亞太老年學研究中心對該課程進行了評估研究，並撰寫了此報告以供相關持分者參考。 研究方法 2. 研究採用定量研究及定性研究的數據收集和分析的混合研究法 (Mixed Methods) 進行。除了透過問卷調查和聚焦小組去收集參加者對課程的看法外，同時分析課程的數據、進行實地觀察，以及檢視相關文獻資料，從而更全面地瞭解整個課程的實施情況、對參與者的影響，以及探討計劃未來的發展方向。 研究結果 3. 本研究於2023年6月至9月期間成功對實驗組及對照組參加者進行了兩輪問卷調查，收集參加者的意見。調查結果顯示，長者及幼童的家長讓他們的孩子參與計劃的最主要原因是為了「想學習新知識 」(長者學員：72%；幼童：73%)，其次為「進行跨代接觸交流」 (長者學員：60%；幼童家長：54%)，第三個主要原因是可以「嘗試新事物」(長者學員：40%；幼童：54%)，以及可以「認識新朋友」 (長者學員：36%；幼童家長：50%)。至於計劃對參加者的影響方面，本研究透過比較實驗組 (即參加「沒有年齡的課室」的長者及幼童學員) 與對照組 (即課程無長幼共學成份)參加者在對雙方態度、自尊心及自信、社交技巧等方面的前後變化。從分析結果顯示，長幼學員在修畢本課程後，對彼此的態度 (長者學員對幼童態度：實驗組增長17%，對照組下降1%；幼童學員對長者態度：實驗組增長19%，對照組增長7%) 及幼童學員的社交技巧 (實驗組增長9%，對照組增長1%) 之增長達統計學顯著程度，足見本課程成功透過長幼共學的方式去改善長幼對彼此的觀感和態度。至於對課程的體驗方面，長者學員及幼童學員之家長均給予高度評價和評分，以1-7分為量表去評價，參加者普遍對課程感到十分滿意 (長者學員：平均分為6.07分；幼童學員：6.29分)、並表示若和悅社會企業日後舉行類似課程會再次參加(長者學員：平均分為5.33分；幼童學員：6.41分) 和向別人推薦此類課程 (長者學員：平均分為5.33分；幼童學員：6.29分)。概括而言，從統計結果反映了課程為參加者帶來很多正面影響，特別是長者或幼童態度之改善比沒有跨代共學成份的課程更為顯著。 4. 此外，本研究邀請了參與課程的長者、幼童家長、和推行「沒有年齡的課室」計劃的同工進行了3 場聚焦小組以深化對問卷調查結果，並進一步探討可如何改善計劃之推行及在社區推廣跨代共學的模式。從結果顯示，長幼學員透過參與本課程互相接觸及互動，增加彼此了解，使彼此的觀感及態度亦變得正面，達到促進跨代共融的目標。同時，幼童的社交技巧、接觸長者的動機及幼童的個人成長亦有所提升。長幼學員、課程導師及項目統籌人員均表示參加者能愉快地學習和十分享受參與本課程。 5. 從不同的的數據作綜合分析，促進「沒有年齡的課室」的成功因素包括: (i) 1對1的長幼配對，增加長幼學員之互動機會以便建立互信關係以及日後的情感聯繫； (ii) 課程時間節數安排要配合幼童的學習時間表 (如與暑假活動分開、每堂時數能讓幼童學員專心等) ；及 (iii) 招募適合的參加者，以其年齡、興趣喜好及性別進行配對 (如女性參加者明顯更為適合參與此類以幼童為對象的活動計劃)。 6. 關於課程的未來發展，研究建議推行機構可考慮以下5 個要點：(i) 除以1對1長幼配對外，亦可考慮同時加入1位長者對數名幼童，或1名幼童對數名長者的混合模式，這樣可以增加長幼學員與不同參加者的互動機會，進一步培養社交技巧；(ii) 可增加針對長者學員的課程內容 ，讓長者以學生身份投入各個課程活動；(iii) 讓一些能力比較高的長者參與課程設計及教材 (如讓長者準備自己過去相片與幼童分享過去時代點滴生活)，為長者充權；(iv) 微調課堂時間以配合長者的活動時間表 (如可參考現時日間長者中心的活動時間)；及 (v) 增加人手安排編制至5至8人，以便在推行活動過程中提供適時的支援 (如增設社工以應付課堂上幼童學員突發的情緒問題)。 總結 7. 綜合各種數數據證明「沒有年齡的課室」有效促進跨代共學與互助，為長者建立正面形象、提升他們的生活質素、亦能令幼童認識如何與長者溝通，改善社交技巧以及提升自尊感等。因此，其他長者服務機構、企業及教育團體可以仿傚此活動，在幼稚園 (即幼兒期) 便引入跨代共學的元素，促進代際間情感、知識與文化的傳遞，重塑「老吾老以及人之老，幼吾幼以及人之幼」的價值觀，建立一個強調代間互助和共融的社會