Media

Launch Ceremony and Press Conference for
“Jockey Club End-of-Life Community Care Project”

05 Jan 2016

 

Hong Kong is facing a rapidly ageing population and the number of elderly will become one-third of the total population in 2050.  Older adults usually have multiple chronic illness, thus there will be a growing demand of End-of-Life Care (EoLC) services.  In the 2015 Quality of Death Index released by The Economist Intelligence Unit in October last year, Hong Kong was at the 22nd place with much room for improvement in comparing with our neighbouring cities, especially in community engagement and public awareness.  How to enhance EoLC services and to provide comprehensive community support to patients and families become an important public health issue.

In view of the growing demand for EoLC services in the community, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust approved HK$131 million to launch a three-year initiative entitled “Jockey Club End-of-Life Community Care Project” (JCECC) in order to strengthen the community support to EoLC services.  Through a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional and cross-sectoral collaboration between social and medical systems, JCECC aims at improving the quality of life of patients with terminal illness and their families through innovative service models, enhancing the capacity of service providers by professional training, as well as raising public awareness by public education campaign.  The Trust is collaborating in the project with the Faculty of Social Sciences of The University of Hong Kong, CUHK Jockey Club Institute of Ageing, and five non-governmental organisations (NGOs) including Hong Kong Association of Gerontology, Haven of Hope Christian Service, The Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation, S.K.H. Holy Carpenter Church District Elderly Community Centre and St. James’ Settlement. 

A press conference will be held to brief press members on the programme.

Media representatives are invited to join the event, details is as follows:

Date: January 8, 2016 (Friday)

Part 1: JCECC Launch Ceremony

Time: 10:00am

Venue: Rayson Huang Theatre, The University of Hong Kong (Map)

Officiating guests: 

Dr. Ko Wing-man, BBS, JP, Secretary for Food and Health, Food and Health Bureau, HKSAR Government

Dr. Eric Li Ka Cheung, GBS, OBE, JP, Steward of The Hong Kong Jockey Club

 Professor Peter Mathieson, President and Vice-Chancellor, HKU

Part 2: JCECC Press Conference

Time: 10:30am

Venue: Room 101, 1/F, Runme Shaw Building, HKU (next to Rayson Huang Theatre)

Speakers:

Mr. Leong Cheung, Executive Director, Charities and Community, The Hong Kong Jockey Club

Professor Cecilia Chan, Professor, Department of Social Work and Social Administration, Faculty of Social Sciences, HKU & Project Co-director

Dr. Edward Leung, President, Hong Kong Association of Gerontology

Professor Jean Woo, Director, CUHK Jockey Club Institute of Ageing

For media enquiries, please contact

Mr. Tommy Fan, Faculty of Social Sciences, HKU (Tel: 39171204/ 97010777; Email: yhfan@hku.hk)

Miss Rhea Leung, Communication and Public Affairs Office, HKU ( Tel: 28578555/ 90227446; Email: rhea.leung@hku.hk)