Replies to LegCo questions
LCQ5: Services provided for children with autism or hyperactivity disorder
Following is
a question by the Hon Cheung Kwok-che and a reply by the Secretary for
Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man, in the Legislative Council today
(December 11):
Question:
In the 2010-2011 Policy Address, the Government indicated that it
would enhance the services provided for autistic children on aspects
such as healthcare, education and pre-school services, including
providing more information about autism to parents and carers of
autistic children and expanding the professional team for relevant
healthcare services. Besides, the Government indicated in the Budget
released subsequently that services would be provided for an additional
3 000 or so children with autism or hyperactivity disorder each year.
Regarding the services provided for children (i.e. persons aged under
18) with autism or hyperactivity disorder, will the Government inform
this Council:
(a) of the respective numbers of children who were assessed for autism
or hyperactivity disorder in each of the past three years, broken down
by age; among such children, of the respective numbers of those who were
diagnosed to be autistic children with and without intellectual
disabilities, as well as those diagnosed to have hyperactivity disorder;
of the current number of autistic children in the territory according to
the authorities' estimation;
(b) of the respective details concerning the healthcare, education and
welfare services provided for children with autism or hyperactivity
disorder by the authorities in the past three years, and the respective
waiting time for such services; and
(c) whether the targets of the healthcare, education and welfare
services currently provided for autistic children include autistic
children without intellectual disabilities; if so, of the details; if
not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the question raised by the Hon Cheung Kwok-che is as
follows:
(a) The Department of Health (DH) provides comprehensive developmental
assessment services through its Child Assessment Service (CAS) for
children under 12 years of age who are suspected to have problems during
their growth stage, including those with tendency for or symptoms of
autism or hyperactivity disorder. After the assessment, the Child
Assessment Centres (CACs) will formulate follow-up plans and make
referrals according to the needs of individual children.
In each of the past three years, the six CACs under the DH
conducted assessment for over 8 000 children. Among them, the number of
confirmed autism cases were between 1 600 and 1 800 and that of
confirmed cases of hyperactivity disorder between 2 000 and 2 200. There
were 900 to 1 100 children confirmed as suffering from both autism and
developmental delay/intellectual disabilities. The detailed figures are
set out in Annex.
As the CAS of the DH is not the only service unit to provide
developmental assessment services for children in Hong Kong, the
Administration cannot project the total number of persons suffering from
autism in Hong Kong based on the above figures.
(b) and (c) Following preliminary assessment by the CAC of the DH,
children with autistic tendency and hyperactivity disorder or symptoms
will be referred to the specialist out-patient clinics of the Hospital
Authority (HA) for further assessment and treatment.
In 2012-13, the HA provided relevant medical services for over 6
100 children and adolescents suffering from autism and over 6 800
children and adolescents suffering from hyperactivity disorder. Autistic
children with intellectual disabilities can also use the services
provided for autistic children by the HA.
To enhance the support for children and adolescents suffering from
autism or hyperactivity disorder, the HA expanded the multi-disciplinary
team comprising various healthcare practitioners in 2011-12 to provide
early identification, assessment and treatment for an additional 3 000
children with autism or hyperactivity disorder each year. The
professional team will provide appropriate treatment and training for
those children in order to help them develop better speech and
communication skills, improve interpersonal relationships and social
skills, problem solving skills, behaviour adjustment and emotional
management, so as to help them communicate and get along with others in
daily life.
As regards developmental assessment services provided by CAS of the
DH, in the past three years, nearly all new cases were attended to
within three weeks, and assessments for over 90% of the newly registered
cases were completed within six months. In 2012-13, the median waiting
time for first appointment of HA's child and adolescent psychiatric
services was about 19 weeks.
On education support services, autistic students with intellectual
disabilities will attend schools for children with intellectual
disabilities for intensive support, while other students having autism
or hyperactivity disorder but are of average intelligence will attend
ordinary schools.
To help ordinary primary and secondary schools cater for students
with special educational needs (SEN) (including students with autism and
hyperactivity disorder), the Education Bureau (EDB) has been providing
additional resources on top of the regular subvention, professional
support and teacher training for schools, and encouraging schools to
adopt the 3-Tier Intervention Model (Note) to support students with SEN.
Schools may flexibly deploy resources to employ additional teaching
staff and/or procure professional services to render appropriate support
for the students.
In addition, since the 2011/12 school year, the EDB has launched a
pilot project on the enhancement of support services for students with
autism in ordinary primary and secondary schools which comprises
structured on-top small group training for students with autism. EDB
also published the "Development of Executive Skills Resource Package" in
the 2009/10 school year for primary schools to strengthen the executive
skills of students with hyperactivity disorder through school-based
group training programme.
Should students with autism or hyperactivity disorder still exhibit
severe emotional and behavioural problems despite the school-based
remedial support, schools may, upon parental consent, refer the students
to the Adjustment Unit of the EDB for pull-out intensive intervention.
For those students who do not show significant improvement after
receiving support, the EDB will consider providing schools with a
time-limited grant to employ teacher assistants to provide
individualised support in order to help the students concerned to
establish classroom routines.
On the welfare front, the Government has strived to provide
children from birth to six years old with disabilities or at risk of
becoming disabled with early intervention through pre-school
rehabilitation services, with a view to enhancing their physical,
psychological and social developments, thus improving their chances of
studying in ordinary schools and participating in daily life activities,
and helping their families meet their special needs.
The Early Education and Training Centres, the Special Child Care
Centres and the Integrated Programme in Kindergarten-cum-Child Care
Centres of the Social Welfare Department (SWD) provide training for
children with disabilities, including those diagnosed with autism and
hyperactivity disorder. There are currently a total of 6 245 pre-school
rehabilitation places. SWD anticipates that about 607 additional places
will come on stream in 2013-14. The waiting time for SWD's pre-school
services in 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 are 10-15 months, 12-17 months
and 13-17 months respectively.
Meanwhile, the Community Care Fund has launched an assistance
programme on "Training Subsidy for Children who are on the Waiting List
of Subvented Pre-school Rehabilitation Services" since December 2011 to
provide training subsidy at a maximum of $2,615 per month for pre-school
children (including those with autism and hyperactivity disorder) from
low-income families who are in need of rehabilitation services, thereby
enabling them to receive self-financing services operated by
non-governmental organisations and facilitating their learning and
development.
Note: Tier-1 support - quality teaching in the regular classroom to help
students with mild or transient learning difficulties. Tier-2 support -
"add-on" intervention for students with persistent learning
difficulties, including those with SEN , e.g. small group learning and
pull out programmes. Tier-3 support - intensive individualised support
for students with severe learning difficulties and SEN.
Ends/Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Issued at HKT 16:15
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