Jockey Club CADENZA Hub meets growing demand for primary healthcare service in the community

19/02/2011

Established with funding from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, the Jockey Club CADENZA Hub ("the Hub") was officially opened today(19 February) by Club Chairman T Brian Stevenson, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung and Elderly Commission Chairman Dr the Hon Leong Che-hung. The one-stop integrated health and social care centre aims to promote the importance of establishing a healthy lifestyle in early adulthood through its innovative case management service.

Located in Fu Shin Estate in Tai Po, the Hub is supported by a multi-disciplinary team comprised of experienced healthcare professionals and university partners to provide a wide range of primary healthcare services under the concept of medical and social integration, such as nutritional advice, traditional Chinese medicine consultation, comprehensive eye examination and physiotherapy. Its day-care service also provides tailor-made services to patients according to their needs and interests and training to the caregivers.

Mr Stevenson noted that improving the quality of life of the Hong Kong community ranks high on the Club’s agenda. "Prevention is better than cure. That’s why the Club initiated the CADENZA Project for Seniors in 2006 to revolutionise people’s views and care for the elderly and to bring the message of positive ageing to the community." Having a broad spectrum of programme components, the CADENZA Hub is one of the innovative service models under the Project. "This is a pioneering service, and after almost a year and a half in operation, we have gained much experience in promoting the concept and its service to the public and potential users," he said.

Mr Cheung commented that the opening of the Hub is timely and meaningful.  "The Jockey Club CADENZA Hub is innovative in several ways. First of all, it promotes the concept of medical and social integration through its case management services which are user-driven. Secondly, it is operated on a self-financed basis, providing an alternative for optimised community care services for the elderly. It also coincides with the government’s policy of encouraging the elderly to age in the community."

"The issue of global population ageing calls on all sectors to share the responsibility of taking care of our elderly," said Dr Leong. "I am very grateful for what the Jockey Club has been doing in this regard, including donations to many organisations to improve residential facilities and developing services for the elderly. The Hub will help them lead an independent and happy life while ageing in the community."

As an advocate of primary healthcare, the Hub recently commissioned an independent organisation to conduct a survey titled "Manage Your Own Health", to look into the health condition and health awareness of middle-aged people, so as to gain insight into their sentiment and demand for local healthcare services. The survey reveals that Hong Kong people are worried about their health condition from middle age, indicating the need to enhance primary healthcare services and strengthen education on the early establishment of a healthy lifestyle, reflecting services offered by the Hub meets the growing healthcare demand in the community.

The survey covered over 500 Hong Kong people aged 35 to 59. While the majority of the respondents (74%) are generally optimistic about their health status, almost half (48%) notice their health condition started to deteriorate as early as 35 years old. Findings also reveal health problems that middle-aged Hong Kong people worry about facing the most in the coming 10 years. In order of precedence these are osteoporosis/joint or bone degeneration (22%), heart disease (16%), cancer (14%), hypertension (11%) and diabetes (10%).

Meanwhile, the majority (76%) feel that the existing support available for caregivers of the elderly and patients with a chronic disease is "insufficient" at community level. 57% of respondents stated the healthcare services they need most is "nutritional and dieting advice", with "health and psychological counselling services" and "long-term case management service" as their subordinate needs. Findings also revealed that 84% of the middle-age respondents said one-stop integrated healthcare centres such as the Jockey Club CADENZA Hub offer great support to the elderly, chronic disease patients and caregivers, reflecting the strong demand for primary healthcare services within the community.

CADENZA Project Director Professor Jean Woo said, "Earlier onset is becoming more common for many chronic diseases, such as hypertension and heart disease. It is crucial to increase the awareness of disease prevention and promote healthy living among Hong Kong citizens. Moreover, our survey findings indicated our community needs a one-stop integrated healthcare centre that offers user-focused and tailored healthcare services for the middle-aged."

Besides providing primary healthcare advice, the Jockey Club CADENZA Hub also delivers professional and tailor-made day-care services for elderly people with dementia. To address society’s increasing awareness of dementia, the Hub established professional training and all around care services for dementia at every stage. From initial assessment to post-diagnosis cognitive training and day-care services, the Hub provides appropriate care to ultimately slow down cognitive deterioration of dementia patients, enabling them to maintain normal social lives. The Hub is dedicated to improving the quality of life of both dementia sufferers and their caregivers.

About Jockey Club CADENZA Hub

The Jockey Club CADENZA Hub is a one-stop fully integrated health and social care centre funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and managed by The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Tasked with providing comprehensive healthcare services, the Hub is supported by a multi-disciplinary team comprised of experienced healthcare professionals and university partners including social workers, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, nutritionists, the School of Chinese Medicine of Hong Kong Baptist University, PolyVision of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and the Centre for Nutritional Studies at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. The Hub adopts an innovative medical and social care integration approach in order to promote the importance of "primary healthcare" among middle-aged and elderly people. The Hub also supports them to establish a healthy lifestyle in early adulthood and eventually to be the master of their own health. Details of CADENZA Hub are available at www.jcch.org.hk.

About CADENZA: A Jockey Club Initiative for Seniors

CADENZA: A Jockey Club Initiative for Seniors is a project launched by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust with a donation of HK$380 million in 2006. The project aims at nurturing academic leadership in gerontology and changing the mindset and attitude of the general public through a range of training and public education programmes. Cross-sectional collaboration between organisations and the implementation of innovative elderly services and programmes are also encouraged in order to bring about a new mode of elderly care services to prepare for a rapidly ageing society. Details of CADENZA are available at www.cadenza.hk.