The Senior Citizen Home Safety Association: Enabling active, ageing-in-place in Hong Kong

• Main Authors: WU, Alfred, DULA, Christopher
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2014
• Subjects: Aging; aging-in-place; active aging; preventative health; population health; service delivery; public welfare; welfare; elderly care; gerontology; systems thinking; social enterprise; information communication technology; ICT; Asian Studies; Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations; Nonprofit Administration and Management; Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration; Public Health; Technology and Innovation
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cases_coll_all/111; https://cmp.smu.edu.sg/case/3161
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Hong Kong has limited formal social protection programmes, as is common in other East Asian cities and countries where the elderly have been traditionally cared for by family members. However, families are increasingly financially strained, as the population is experiencing rapidly declining birth rates and an ageing population. This has led to a generation of adults – who are often the only child – charged with the responsibility of caring for their elderly parents as well as their own children without having the additional support of siblings. The unfortunate consequence of this is a lack of provision of quality elderly care. Moreover, a policy solution based on public welfare support is becoming more and more unattainable as the workforce-dependency ratio in the Hong Kong society is deteriorating. This case study, therefore, provides an illustrative example of how one organisation, the Senior Citizen Home Safety Association (SCHSA), is working to relieve the pressures of a rapidly ageing population by enabling active, ageing-in-place principles. SCHSA is a self-financing social enterprise and charitable organisation in Hong Kong that provides quality self-funding services at a low cost to empower the elderly to live independent, healthier and rewarding lives and with dignity, in their communities. It accomplishes this through the smart use of partnerships and information technology. But is this a tenable model to meet Hong Kong’s ageing needs, and if so, could it be replicated elsewhere? In this case students will gain a better understanding of the demographic challenges posed by an ageing population. They will learn how to apply active, ageing-in-place frameworks to uphold the United Nations Principles for Older Persons. They will be able to identify and evaluate the effectiveness of SCHSA in applying active, ageing-in-place frameworks and to determine what key features of its business model are essential if it is replicated elsewhere. The case can be used to demonstrate alternative service delivery options that can exist outside of, and support, the public welfare. The case is suitable for undergraduate and graduate level classes pertaining to systems thinking, gerontology and public administration.