Secretary for Labour & Welfare Chris Sun said today that as of the middle of this month, the 24-hour Designated Hotline for Carer Support had received over 14,600 calls since its launch last September, with an average of over 80 calls per day.

Replying to questioning from legislator Stanley Li in the Legislative Council this morning, Mr Sun said the Government the hotline, 182 183, provides instant consultation and counselling, as well as outreach, emergency support and service referral.

About 35% of callers sough emotional counselling, while around 24% of calls involved enquiries about community support services. Caring issues and financial problems accounted for 15% and 7% respectively. Most of the other calls were about health and housing problems, or requests for respite services.

There have been 17 cases where the hotline provided crisis intervention to address the immediate needs of carers or families.

In addition, since December the Social Welfare Department has asked 135 private residential care homes for the elderly operating under the Enhanced Bought Place Scheme to utilise designated residential respite places subsidised by the Government to provide day respite services for elderly people in need.

Elderly people in need can directly receive subsidised day respite services without the need for case referrals or passing a means test.

The new measure was introduced in December, and about 20 elderly people have been served in the three months up until February.

Mr Sun added that from the fourth quarter this year, the Government will invite 175 service providers participating in the Community Care Service Voucher Scheme for the Elderly to provide subsidised day respite services for elderly people in need.

At the same time, 57 subvented Day Care Centres/Units for the Elderly continue to provide 268 designated day respite service places.

Taking into account the two abovementioned measures for utilising the service capacity of private or self-financing service units, the number of service points offering subsidised day respite services for the elderly will expand to 367, covering all districts in Hong Kong.

The welfare chief added that in 2024-25, the Government will continue to render its full support to carers through measures such as continuous expansion of the respite service network and promotion of citywide publicity campaigns, as well as enhancing peer support services and preparing to set up four additional Parents/Relatives Resource Centres for carers of those in mental recovery.

The measures also include injecting an additional $1 billion into the Innovative & Technology Fund for Application in Elderly & Rehabilitation Care, and setting up 21 designated teams to support special school leavers and their carers.