Ao Ieong: govt improves support to special needs children

The Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, Elsie Ao Ieong has said that the government has been working hard to improve support to children with special needs and that this can be seen in the services provided by the recently opened Center for Jointed Pediatric Evaluation (CACP).

According to the Secretary, in response to two inquiries from lawmakers Ngan Iek Hang and Ma Io Fong at the Legislative Assembly, the Center has enabled a significant reduction of the waiting time for several services and particularly for a first evaluation appointment.

“Currently, the waiting time for a first appointment at the CACP is about four weeks. After assessment, children in need will receive occupational therapy or speech therapy according to the clinical priority mechanism. For urgent cases there is no need to wait. For non-urgent and common cases, the waiting time for occupational therapy is around three to seven weeks and around eight to nine weeks for speech therapy, which represents a significant reduction in waiting time compared to 12 to 18 months before the creation of the CACP,” Ao Ieong said.

She said the health bureau has been committed to further reducing waiting times for medical treatment by extending their opening hours, increasing services on weekends as well as by acquiring early intervention services from other non-profit institutions which can provide them immediately.

The Secretary also noted the development of “speech therapy via Artificial Intelligence,” a service launched a little over two years ago and which allows children to receive training at home with the help of their parents.

She said this system is already implemented in several institutions that provide early intervention to children in need and that offer 3,000 slots for child rehabilitation.

“Until April this year, there were more than 1,600 children and more than 30,000 utilizations of this system,” the same official said.

She also said that from the upcoming 2024-2025 academic year, the government will expand speech therapy services through the participation of parents and guardians together with the support of online language training and support measures to schools.

In the same academic year, she said the expected waiting time for physiotherapy or occupational therapy would be reduced from the current time of about six months to two to three months.