Community Care for Older People in Hong Kong: From Policy to Politics

社區照顧可以說是香港老人服務政策的基石。由一九七三年開始，政府已開始提出老人社區照顧的政策方向，同時在七十年代正式納入福利綠皮書及白皮書，從而正式成爲政策藍本。一九九四年，香港政府在老人服務報告書中，提出『就地老化』的概念，並藉此再次確立社區照顧的政策方針。本文集中討論香港社區照顧政策的發展，並探討政府在推行社區照顧政策的角色。作者提出香港老人社區照顧政策已進一步走向『剩餘化』，老人在社區內接受照顧的目標，也漸漸改變爲老人由社區提供照顧，因而社區照顧也變成家庭照顧，而所謂社區的互助精神，只是空泛的口號而缺乏實質的內容。作者認爲香港的老人社區照顧若要成功，政府提供足夠的社區支援服務是不可或缺的。

關鍵字

社區照顧；家庭照顧；支援網絡；年長者；照顧的社會分工

並列摘要

Community care is the cornerstone of the policy for elderly care in Hong Kong. Firstly introduced to the realm of elderly services in 1973, it was commended as ”the right approach for the provision of services”. The concept of 'aging in place', which has been later developed in the Report of the Working Group on Care for the Elderly published by the Hong Kong Government in 1994, re-affirmed the government's notion of 'care in the community' by stressing the right of an elderly person to be assisted to live in community with dignity and to participate in society both socially or economically for as long as possible. This paper discusses the development of community care as a central strategy in providing elderly services in Hong Kong. The authors argue that the policy contents of community care have been more residualised as it develops from the ideal of 'care in the community' to the notion of 'care by the community'. In the recent years, community care has further been reduced to the practice of family care, supported by rhetorical volunteerism and empty community networks. The authors further argue that the object of community care, whereby older people live and are being care for in the community to which they are familiar, would hardly turn out a reality with only empty promises of the government.