簡介
Listen to #Hashtag Hong Kong every Sunday morning at 8.15
Focussing on issues affecting civil society, we'll hear from representatives of NGOs, associations, statutory bodies, and non-profit groups.
(Sundays 8.15am - 8.25am)
最新
Grace Chan, Art Therapist at the Providence Garden for Rehab, The Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council
Grace Chan, Art Therapist at the Providence Garden for Rehab, The Hong Kong
Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council
Good morning, I am delighted to share with you the health benefits of Art Therapy
today. The Providence Garden for Rehab in Tuen Mun is one of the largest rehabilitation buildings in Hong Kong, operated under the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council. This centre provides innovative and multidisciplinary rehabilitation services to around 1,000 individuals, including people in recovery and persons with
intellectual or physical challenges.
The Providence Garden for Rehab focuses on holistic rehabilitation, it is community-oriented and advocates for integrated body-mind-spirit development. We aim to enhance the living standards of our service users, so that they can live independently in a caring and accepting environment. Also we hope to promote their integration into the community through various rehabilitation programmes, with a particular focus on art therapy.
Art Therapy combines the creative process with psychotherapy, guided by qualified art therapists. This approach has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety, resolve emotional conflicts, improve self-esteem and self-awareness, and alleviate physical pain.
Research over the past two decades has demonstrated the significant positive effects of the arts on health and well-being. In 2019, the World Health Organisation (WHO) European Region issued a report based on over 3000 studies, identified a major role for the arts in the prevention of illness, promotion of health, and management and treatment of health issues across the lifespan. The growing evidence informed us that by engaging in the arts and the creative process, it benefits various emotional, mental and physical health conditions of individuals.
What sets Art Therapy apart from traditional talking therapies is that the non-verbal component engages the five senses through visual, tactile, and sensory art forms. For example, a person who is going through grief could create a collage picture utilising printed photographs of the loved one, and expressing the emotions using visual and symbolic metaphor. A person who is angry, could safely release anger and frustration by pounding some clay, transforming the negative energy by modelling a tactile clay piece into something meaningful and reflective of the current life experience. The
creative art process is a direct channel to support emotional release and self-exploration of an individual in a safe and positive way, which often could not be fully expressed by words alone. It empowers the individual to feel more grounded and understood, and fosters healing and positive change.
Through our individual and group art therapy services, I engage with a diverse range of ages, from youth to adults, including their caregivers. I've worked with many people facing anxiety and depression, who have found art therapy to be a valuable complement to traditional psychiatric treatment and therapy, enabling them to increase self-love and self-awareness. Additionally, our caregivers’ group has gained attention, as many caregivers experience stress and burnout often. In collaboration with social workers, we offer Art Therapy self-care and stress-reduction groups specifically for caregivers.
Our organisation’s rehabilitation service is also actively involved in promoting mental health and reducing stigma in the community. Through public education art therapy exhibition, the public can get to know the thoughts and feelings of people living with various health challenges through their artwork. We organised a public art exhibition last year named “Art Tales – Our Illustrated Stories” with the support of the Arts Development Fund for Persons with Disabilities. We would continue to organise programs and exhibitions so as to engage the community for public education and stigma reduction purposes.
In the future, The Providence Garden for Rehab will continue to offer art therapy programmes, public education initiatives, and various mental health support groups to bridge service gaps and promote social inclusion and harmony in our Hong Kong community.
This morning I would like to dedicate a song “Photograph” by Ed Sheeran to fellow audiences, maybe you are a caregiver, someone who struggles with depression, or just having thoughts of anxiety from time to time. Remember to practice self-care and take a deep breath. Find a safe space to relax, whether in nature or at home, and consider creating art while listening to music. Allow yourself to take things slowly, sitting with your emotions and understanding that they are part of you. Embrace the ups and downs and the rich inner emotions as part of life’s adventures, and let the colours, shapes and lines of the art creation reflect your life. May you be well and be blessed abundantly!
02/03/2025 - Grace Chan, Art Therapist at the Providence Garden for Rehab, The Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Welfare Council
重溫
Wong Shek Hung, Director of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Programme, Oxfam Hong Kong
It is the eighteenth year I have been working at Oxfam Hong Kong. I have dedicated my passion here because Oxfam is courageous enough to speak the truth and advocate for a just world that narrows the poverty gap. Each year, we launch our Hong Kong Poverty Report based on the data from the Census and Statistics Department, providing in-depth analysis of the poverty situation in Hong Kong to develop policy suggestions for alleviating poverty. Looking back, this marks the tenth year since we launched the poverty report. Unfortunately, I must say that this year's report reveals the largest income gap and the highest poverty rate to date.
According to our latest report, it found that the poorest decile earned 81.9 times less than the richest decile in the first quarter of 2024. Over 1.39 million people now live under the poverty line. Of this total, about one million individuals are poor non-economic active population, having left the labor market for different reasons. Even more alarming is the rise in poverty among our elderly; more than 580,000 individuals aged 65 or above were living in poverty, including approximately 260,000 singleton and doubleton elderly households.
Government has just released the Policy Address and I am glad to see that the Policy Address aligns with our calls to activate the non-economic poor population, including the elderly and women, to re-engage with the community with different forms of support. However, the establishment of a poverty line has not been addressed.
Since 2022, the government has stopped publishing poverty reports and associated poverty lines, adopting Targeted Poverty Alleviation instead. This strategy supports single-parent households, elderly households, and those in sub-divided units. However, it's crucial to retain a poverty line to analyze and monitor Hong Kong's overall poverty situation. This data enhances the design of effective poverty reduction policies tailored to different target groups. We understand the concerns in society regarding the accuracy of the poverty line, noting that it may overestimate poverty situation, as some individuals may own properties and other assets. In July of this year, we finished another research report regarding the poverty line and we suggest analysing households that include elderly individuals independently and converting the assets of these families into monthly income through annuitisation methods. We are open to discussing the measurement of the poverty line and hope the government will reconsider it, as it serves as crucial evidence for designing targeted poverty strategies.
The Policy Address proposed the set-up of a Working Group on Promoting Silver Economy. Oxfam expects that the Committee will design its policy suggestions focusing on 'enabling' and 'active ageing' strategies to address the issues arising from population ageing.
We previously suggested the Government create a database for singleton and doubleton elderly households by integrating data from different departments. We’re pleased that the Policy Address mentioned creating an interdisciplinary database for caregivers of the elderly and disabled. We hope this database's scope expands to include singleton and doubleton elderly households and is shared with social welfare agencies. This would help match appropriate social welfare support to these families.
Above all, early intervention and preventive measures are crucial for reducing health risks among the elderly. I welcome the government's proposal in the Policy Address to develop primary healthcare solutions. We further suggest that the government utilise telemedicine and technologies to provide suitable medical care. It should also promote elder-friendly exercises such as dance and stretching, combining programmes with online platforms to enable home training. The government could consider expanding medical vouchers to include online/offline health courses on exercise, allowing elderly to manage their health independently.
For those young old who are still willing to join labor market, we need an elderly-friendly environment. Hong Kong's poor elderly labor participation is only 3.8%, far lower than Mainland China (25%) and Norway (22.2%). The significant discrepancy is largely due to the intensity of pull factors in policy. We advocate the government should encourage employers to hire elderly through simplified application procedures of the Employment Programme for the Elderly and Middle-aged by directly providing subsidies based on the number of new elderly employees hired, as well as enhancing elderly’s willingness to work by lowering the threshold for elderly applicants in the Working Family Allowance Scheme. Even if they engage in part-time job, they could still enjoy full subsidies.
Population ageing doesn't have to lead to a social crisis. Long-term, by promoting Active Ageing and creating elder-friendly environments through technological and social innovations, society can address elderly needs. With government incentives to help re-engage motivated elderly in society and the job market, they can become valuable social capital. We all play a role in supporting each other. With vision and cooperation among public, private, and community stakeholders, Hong Kong can overcome challenges and build a more inclusive future.
This morning, I would like to dedicate a song “Imagine” by John Lennon to all of you and hope we will make a better world together.
