A study of the living environment and elderly services in the old urban areas of Hong Kong

Abstract

The ageing population is growing rapidly in Hong Kong. In addition, the distribution of the elderly concentrates to live in the old urban districts including Central and Western, Wan Chai, Eastern, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon City, Wong Tai Sin, Kwun Tong and Yau Tsim Mong. In order to provide care services for elderly people, the principle of “ageing of place” is adopted by the government aim to the elderly live in a familiar environment. In order to provide a suitable living environment for the elderly, the government has implemented a series of policies on housing, recreational facilities and social elderly services for the elderly who live in the old urban districts.

In order to understand whether the elderly are satisfied with the services to be provided by the government, three districts including Central and Western district, Eastern district and Wan Chai district are picked up as target of study which are a high proportion of the elderly living in. Opinions are demanded from the elderly and the representatives of Owners’ Corporation who live in these districts in order to investigate the perception of existence living environment, the recognition of the financial incentive schemes, the most important facilities and elderly services for them in daily life, the satisfaction level of the recreational facilities and the social elderly centre and the importance of maintenance of relationship with neighbours in the old urban districts. The paper finally raised several recommendations for improvement of living environment and elderly services in the old urban districts. They are providing better facilities for the elderly, increasing amount of financial incentive providing more funding for the non-government organization, providing sufficient place for the social elderly centre, providing more recreational facilities and enhancing service delivery. With the better living environment and sufficient of elderly services, the elderly can maintain a healthy life in the old urban districts.