The Hong Chi Association, a Hong Kong nonprofit organization, has attracted wide public attention in recent days after it was revealed that its staff had assaulted two victims at the hostel.
In response, the Chief Executive of the HKSAR, Donald John Lee, said sternly at a media meeting before the Executive Council on the 29th that these were despicable and offensive crimes and that the police must conduct a full investigation and hold the police accountable.
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Staff were suspected of assaulting residents with intellectual disabilities
More than two months later
Information shows that the Hong Chi Association was established in 1965 as the Hong Kong Association for the Mentally Handicapped, which was renamed in 1997. It is the largest nonprofit organization in Hong Kong serving the mentally handicapped. There are over 100 service units serving about 9200 persons with intellectual disabilities of different ages and levels.
The incident occurred in August this year, when a 20-year-old male resident of Hong Chi Association was found to have an abnormal condition while bathing by his mother. He suspected that someone had touched his body and informed the hospital. After the hospital investigation found that the resident was suspected of being assaulted by a male staff member during the duty, the victims also include a 21-year-old female resident, the male staff involved had taken two victims into a separate room. The investigation also indicated that the female victim may have been repeatedly assaulted.
The male staff member was arrested and charged with indecent assault on a mentally capacity male and rape. Hong Chi Association announced on 23 October that it had dismissed the staff member and set up an independent review committee to review the existing safeguards. But it was announced more than two months after the incident.
Screenshot of Hong Kong Hong Chi Association’s announcement.
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The Hong Kong community continues to be concerned
After the incident, the Hong Kong community continues to be concerned.
At present, there are 314 residential Social Welfare Department for Persons with Disabilities (rchds) licensed by the Government of the HKSAR (SWD) . However, a review of SWD’s official website, “Warning records of residential care homes for persons with disabilities (rchds) in the past 12 months”, revealed that 15 rchds had received warning letters from SWD for breaching the code of practice for rchds in the past year. Among them, five institutions, including Hong Chi Association, have been involved in suspected cases of abuse or fraud.
In this regard, a number of HKSAR Legislative Council members called on the HKSAR Government to take stringent measures to regulate. Hon Jiang Yuhuan and Hon Lin Suwei wrote to the chairman of the Panel on welfare services of the Legislative Council, Guan Haoming, urging the convening of a special meeting as soon as possible to request the relevant departments of the HKSAR Government and the organisations concerned to attend the meeting to give an explanation, we will also explore ways to improve the regulatory mechanism of residential care homes for persons with disabilities to prevent recurrence of similar incidents.
Some Hong Kong media also published an editorial saying that in fact, the sexual abuse scandal of“Cambridge House”(a private residential care home for the disabled in Hong Kong)10 years ago has sounded the alarm, and similar facts have happened again and again, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR-RRB- government must be more determined and more stringent in tackling the problem.
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Chief Executive of Hong Kong:
Home management and staff discipline should be effectively supervised
John Lee also said that the SWD should ensure that such homes operate in accordance with the requirements of their licences and that the management of such homes, in particular, staff discipline must establish an effective supervision and supervision system.
At the same time, John Lee hoped that Hong Chi Association would conduct a comprehensive review of the operation of the RCHE. The management of the RCHE has the responsibility to ensure that the best service is provided by the RCHE, and the interests of the residents must be put first. “I have asked them to submit their reports as soon as possible and the SWD has to conduct a comprehensive review of the reports to ensure that the rches are operating in compliance with the licensing requirements and the code of Practice, and to assist the rches as far as possible in fulfilling their responsibilities.”
John Lee also said that the SWD, the Hong Chi Association’s Independent Review Committee and the management should also comprehensively examine the possibility of using CCTV as a daily monitoring system, make it an effective and intimidating management tool.
In addition, the Secretary for Security of the HKSAR Government, Tang Ping-keung, expressed great concern over the incident and said that the police had set up a task force to conduct a detailed investigation and collect evidence as soon as possible to ensure that the truth could be found, to dispose of in accordance with the law.
The Secretary for Labour and Welfare of the HKSAR Government, Sun Yuhan, also said that the HKSAR Government has a mechanism to monitor residential care homes for persons with disabilities (rchds) and hoped that the outcome of the handling of the incident would be announced as soon as possible. However, other factors should also be taken into account, including consideration of the emotional stability of the victims and their families, whether the public can accept the incident, etc. .