Saint Francis University (SFU), in collaboration with the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences of City University of Hong Kong (CityU), and funded by the Simon K Y Lee Foundation, has kick-offed the Caregiver Support Project 2.0 in January 2024, which provides social workers with a scientific and comprehensive Caregiver Support Model (CSM) consisting of a locally formulated and validated Caregiver Needs and Resources Assessment (CNRA) tool. The project team held a Mid-term Celebration on 16 January 2025, and provided a platform for experience sharing amongst the participating organisations.
Representatives of the 9 participating social welfare organisations were invited to the celebration, and a total of 104 participants were attended, including Ms Jenny YAN, Assistant Director (Elderly) of the Social Welfare Department and member of the Caregiver Support Project Steering Committee; Mr Timothy MA, member of the Simon K Y Lee Foundation Advisory Committee, Mrs Mabel LEE, Board Member of the Simon K Y Lee Foundation; Ms Irene YU, Programme Director of the Simon K Y Lee Foundation; Prof LO Tit Wing, Acting President of SFU, Prof Alice CHONG, Research Professor of the Felizberta Lo Padilla Tong School of Social Sciences, SFU; and Dr Ben LI, Associate Professor of the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, CityU.
Prof Alice CHONG, leader of the project, said the celebration is not only to celebrate the remarkable achievements of the project so far, but also to provide a valuable opportunity for co-workers of the project to learn from each other and share their experiences, so as to help more caregivers in need.
The Caregiver Support Project aimed to provide suitable services for family caregivers with a scientific, comprehensive and locally validated working model, and promote their capacity, resilience and long-term well-being. Mr Timothy MA said that the scheme is timely as the number of carers and the support they need will continue to increase under an ageing population. He added that the stress of the caregivers is closely related to their feelings, and the development of an appropriate model of caregiver support can bring about double benefits, "the elders will also feel sad when seeing the caregivers in pain, therefore if the stress of the caregivers can be relieved, the elders can also feel the relief."
There are currently 9 social welfare organisations actively participating in the project, including Baptist Oi Kwan Social Service, Caritas Hong Kong, Christian Family Service Centre, Hong Kong Christian Service, Hong Kong Family Welfare Society, Methodist Centre, Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council, Po Leung Kuk and The Salvation Army. The social workers from 3 of the organisations (Caritas Hong Kong, Hong Kong Christian Service, Po Leung Kuk) shared their successful experience and feelings when implementing the CSM; social workers and seed caregivers from Baptist Oi Kwan Social Service and The Salvation Army also talked about the local application of Psycho-education Program on Empowerment (PP-E) in a roundtable discussion.
About the Caregiver Support Project 2.0
The project was by led Saint Francis University (SFU), in collaboration with the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences of City University of Hong Kong (CityU), and funded by the Simon K Y Lee Foundation. It provides a scientific and comprehensive Caregiver Support Model for social workers, consisting of a locally formulated and validated Caregiver Needs and Resources Assessment (CNRA) tool. The project also uses the Psycho-educational Program on Empowerment PPE to strengthen the resilience of family caregivers and help them cope with the challenges of caregiving.
Please refer to the following website for more information of the project:
https://www.simonkyleefoundation.org/en/elderly-fund/grandmove-project/