Source:
https://scmp.com/comment/letters/article/2187910/hong-kong-carers-need-greater-care-talk-must-give-way-solid-support
Comment/ Letters

Hong Kong carers need greater care: talk must give way to solid support

  • With several recent family tragedies highlighting the strain on those taking care of the elderly, the disabled and children with learning difficulties, there is no excuse for society not to act
The Community Care Fund has a pilot scheme that provides an allowance for low-income carers of the disabled, but there are many eligibility criteria to meet. Photo: Shutterstock

The Legislative Council’s panel on welfare services has just discussed support to caregivers – people taking care of the elderly, the disabled and children with learning difficulties. After long years of caring for others, they may feel exhausted. But society does not provide enough support to these caregivers. This can lead them to suffer from great stress, which one day may explode and lead to horrific tragedies.

Last year, a grandmother killed her six-year-old grandson with a hyperactivity disorder, presumably because she didn’t know how to take care of him. There was another case of an old man who killed his paralysed wife, because he was afraid nobody would take care of her after he passed away. Why are these tragedies happening? What’s wrong with our social welfare system?