Elderly tragedies 'highlight the desperate flaws in Hong Kong's social services'
Disturbing recent cases of man found dead in wheelchair after carer-son died and paralysed woman set on fire expose services system too complex to use
Two recent family tragedies, which ended in one instance with two people dead and in the other a paralysed stroke patient being set on fire, point to gaps in social services that are leaving sole carers of the frail without support.
The disturbing cases expose the extent to which available services for those who need help taking care of bedridden relatives at home are not easily accessible - and are in fact almost "impossible to navigate" - because of a complex support system, social work experts say.
With the two incidents happening barely three weeks apart, the city is crying out for a case management system that will ensure adequate care for individual patients after they leave hospital, the experts say.
Last month, the body of a wheelchair-bound man, 84, was found in the same flat as his dead son-in-law, 61, after the younger man's death left the older man without help. Then on Thursday, a 60-year-old man set his paralysed wife, 53, on fire, before putting out the blaze and calling the police. He had quit his job 10 years ago to care for her.
"There are gaps in our services - these isolated families are unable to be connected with the help they need," lawmaker and social work professor Dr Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung said.
"In both cases, there is a person who needs long-term care; in one the carer had physical problems himself, while in the other the carer has mental problems."
The government claimed to have "discharge plans" designed for hospital patients returning home, but everything was "just talk and no action", Cheung said.