Jockey Club Age Friendly City: Health@Community
Summary
Responding to the domain of “Community support and health services” rated lowest in the Baseline Report (2016), Hong Kong Christian Service launched Health@Community in April to December 2018 to promote inter-sector, inter-disciplinary primary healthcare in the community, which aims to:
1.promote self-management of chronic disease through community education and technology;
2.provide neighborhood support through ambassador programme. Ambassadors and nursing students co-designed achievable, assessable and affordable recipes and exercises to the seniors;
3.identify the risk by setting up community clinic. Seniors with chronic diseases were referred for professional interventions such as health consultation and case management. Owing to geographical factors in Kwun Tong, seniors with disability were difficult to attend medical follow-ups. Thus, telemedicine was adopted so that seniors could receive medical consultations with pharmacists via SNS.
Benefits were evident in following aspects:
1.increasing knowledge in chronic disease management and prevention;
2.establishment of community based primary healthcare system by progressive and client orientated intervention;
3.introduction of telemedicine for seniors to sustain their healthy lifestyles;
4.promotion of bottom-up participation and intergeneration solidarity. Ambassadors and students with medical training backgrounds tailor-made exercise routines and diet recipes for seniors as daily health management practices;
5.enhancement of self-efficacy and empowerment for volunteers.
The program shows enhancing “Individual Self-management of Health”, “Strengthen Neighborhood Support” and “Promoting Medical-Social Collaboration” are key factors to develop primary healthcare in the community and sustain age-friendly community.
Website: https://www.jcafc.hk/tc/Events/Health-At-Community.html
Key facts
Main target group: Older people in general
Other target group(s): Residents of Kwun Tong district
Sector(s): Information and communication
Other sector(s): Community support and health services, communication and information， respect and social inclusion
Desired outcome for older people:
Meet their basic needs
- Ageism
- Healthy behaviours (e.g. physical activity)
- Intergenerational activities
- Inclusion
- Participation
- Other
Other Issues: Self-empowerment and growth of elderly