Hong Kong launches HK$290 million project to offer end-of-life care to disabled
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Hong Kong launches HK$290 million project to offer end-of-life care to disabled
Hong Kong launches HK$290 million project to offer end-of-life care to disabled
June 16, 2025

A HK$290 million (US$36.9 million) support project has been launched to provide end-of-life care to Hong Kong’s disabled residents, with organisers expressing hope that it will plug a critical service gap while empowering the community.


The five-year initiative, funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, is expected to serve more than 3,000 physically and intellectually disabled people, those in mental recovery and about 4,000 carers, and builds on a decade-long support project targeting the elderly.


Professor Amy Chow Yin-man, project director and head of the department of social work and social administration at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), said on Monday that the end-of-life care model for the disabled was underdeveloped worldwide.


“In the past, there was little space for end-of-life care for disabled people because many were diagnosed with a terminal illness very late … primarily due to struggles in communicating their health conditions,” she said.


“But their needs started to be seen and catered to when their life expectancy grew longer, and more societal resources were available.”


Under the new scheme, frontline workers from 10 non-governmental organisations started receiving training from mid-2024 to deliver support services, ranging from advance care planning to life and death education, primarily in care home settings.




Patients will be guided to express their preferences in areas such as personal goals and treatment expectations, and in making advance directives for refusing life-sustaining procedures such as resuscitation and artificial feeding and hydration when they are dying.


Other services include honouring clients’ final wishes, facilitating communication with family members and providing bereavement support.


Chow hoped the project would facilitate long-term policy planning by providing more evidence of the advantages of effective end-of-life care, such as reducing healthcare costs by avoiding unnecessary hospitalisation.


The city’s legislature passed a bill in November 2024 that gave legal status to a document allowing patients to reject certain end-of-life care treatments. The new law will take effect in mid-2026.

According to the 2021 census, Hong Kong had 530,000 people with physical disabilities or in mental recovery, 70 per cent of whom were aged over 50 years. The mentally disabled population was estimated to be between 77,000 and 90,000.


The project team estimated that 3,800 to 4,900 disabled residents were in need of palliative and end-of-life care.



Link: https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3314625/jockey-club-launches-project-bring-end-life-care-disabled-hongkongers


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