A new counselling service is to be made available to recent immigrants from the mainland.
The aim was to take care of problems which might arise when families were reunited after a long time apart, Director of Home Affairs Shelly Lau Lee Lai-kuen told provisional legislators yesterday.
'The young wife may need to go out to work, leaving the old husband with very young kids. Members of a family may each have different problems which general services might not be able to help with all at once. Now, the whole family can be treated as a unit,' Mrs Lau said.
The service and group activities could cater to 600 to 1,000 families each year.
The scheme, to start next month, will be run by the Federation of Youth Groups sponsored by the Jockey Club.
