Safe Community Tuen Mun

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Name of the Community: Tuen Mun Safe Community
Country: Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
Number of inhabitants: 490,000
Programme started year: 1999
International Safe Communities Network Membership: Designation year : 2003
Info address on www for the Programme: www.safecommunity.org.hk


Vision
To create a safe and healthy living and working environment or the community of Tuen Mun through the promotion of a safety culture.

Mission
The Tuen Mun Safe Community aims to reduce the frequency of injuries and accidents through a structured and integrated approach. Programs to prevent and control injury problems for a wide range of target groups will be launched through coordination of resources, research, information sharing, promotion and education. Programs will be evaluated for their effectiveness and sustained improvement.


The programme covers the following safety promotion activities:

For the age group

Children 0-14 years: Children home safety promotion and exhibition
Through education by nursing staff to parents of new born, particularly those new migrants from Mainland China, the incidence of domestic injuries for children handled by the Emergency Department of Tuen Mun Hospital has been decreasing for the past 3 years. Further promotion and education through exhibition display of home safety for children improved the public awareness much.


Home safety pamphlet

Youth 15-24 years:
Drug abuse, junior police call
According to the Central Registry of Drug Abusers, drug abuse is not regarded as a serious problem in Tuen Mun District, a significant reduction in the arrest of drug addicts can be found over the past three years. The Junior Police Call Scheme (JPC) was formed in 1974 by the Police to promote law-abiding among young people in Hong Kong. At present, 8623 young people have enrolled as JPC members and 864 as JPC leaders in Tuen Mun. The JPC has effectively educated its members to stay away from drug abuse.

JPC activity

Adults 25-64 years: Health education and promotion

The Community Service Centre of Tuen Mun Hospital has played an important role for the continuous contribution and commitment to the safety and health of the Tuen Mun Community. She has organized a series of health education activities to promote health among the citizens.

Elderly 65+ years: Community geriatric assessment service and elderly fall prevention

The Community Geriatric Assessment Service has regularly arranged education talks to Care & Aged Homes, Hostels and Day Care Centres etc boosting up the awareness of the risk of falling to the senior citizens in the Tuen Mun community. The establishment of the Fall Clinic at the Geriatric Day Hospital of Tuen Mun Hospital also provided timely intervention for those clients who might have a high risk of fall at home. More over, the team of Community Nursing Service also contributed to identify, educate and refer risk clients for timely intervention.

Teaching balance exercise for fall prevention

At the following environments:

Home: Home safety, safety estate, improvement for the general environment

The Housing Authority has paid much effort to improve the safety awareness of the citizens at the public housing estates. With the co-operation of various public and private organizations, various promotional programs were organized within the estates.

To prevent accidents for citizens living in remote villages in the Tuen Mun district, the Tuen Mun District Office has co-ordinated numerous improvement projects.

These improvement programs provided safer access with better lighting for the villages, which would prevent senior citizens from falling during access of the villages in their daily living. The improvement of landslip sites would prevent citizens form injuries caused by the landslip accidents.

A village access before and after improvement work. (Source: Tuen Mun District Office)

Traffic: Road safety, light rail safety

The Police have assisted local schools including kindergartens, primary and secondary schools to form Road Safety Patrol Teams to help promote road safety among young people. A total of 33 Teams (10 in secondary schools, 10 in primary schools and 13 in kindergartens) have been established with 902 members participating regularly. In the meantime, Police Officers from the Road Safety Section regularly conduct school talks to promote road safety consciousness among students.

Hong Kong’s Light Rail system, which is the major mode of internal transport for the 900,000 residents of the new towns of Tuen Mun, Yuen Long and Tin Shui Wai, carries more than 320,000 people a day. Great emphasis is placed on the safety of this busy railway system.

Road safety carnival launched by Light Rail Train

Occupational: Occupational safety and health

The Occupational Safety and Health Council dedicates to further the safety and health development in Hong Kong. In 2000 the first affiliate safe community support centre in Asia inaugurated in Hong Kong.

The establishment of Tuen Mun Safe Community is to facilitate the development of safety awareness amongst members of the community. The Council supports the Tuen Mun Safe Community and takes the initiatives to strengthen the awareness of safety and health amongst public through multi-facets activities. In addition to the general promotional items, we organize special promotional campaigns with specific topics which focusing on general public, people working in the high-risk industry and the youth. The Occupational Safety & Health Corner has also been set up in Tuen Mun Hospital.

Occupational Safety & Health Corner

School: University student volunteers, secondary school ambassadors

"Project X" is an early intervention program aimed at engaging volunteer students from Lingnan University as role models to counsel, support and provide guidance to youths at risk so as to prevent them from delinquency and crime. Up to 25 freshmen are selected annually from Lingnan University to participate as mentors in the scheme. They are provided training by representatives from Lingnan, the Police, District Fight Crime Committee, Social Welfare Department, Education Department and Non-Government Organizations to equip themselves with the skills in mentoring two adolescent youths each for a period of three years. Since 1997, 114 students have become mentors and 228 young people have already benefited from their mentorship in this project.

Secondary School Ambassadors Program was launched by the Police in Tuen Mun in 1998 to enhance communication with local schools. A Police Officer is assigned, on a voluntary basis, to each of the 39 secondary schools in Tuen Mun to establish a discreet line of communication between his Divisional Commander and the school. As ambassadors they will regularly visit the school and disseminate crime prevention messages to the students, also provide advice and assistance to the Headmasters in handling problem related to students, such as truancy and conflicts among students.

Report of Project X

Sports: Education for prevention of sports injuries

The Physiotherapy Department of Tuen Mun Hospital would arrange regular educational talks to secondary school in Tuen Mun and Yuen Long district for prevention of sports injuries for secondary school students.

On the other hand a Sports Injury Clinic was established between the Physiotherapy Department and the Othropaedic & Traumatology Department of Tuen Mun Hospital to assess, treat and implement prevention program for athletes.

Leisure: Safety and health carnival, countryside fire protection

The Tuen Mun District Office supported an annual carnival for promotion of Occupational Safety & Health to improve the awareness of Work Safety for all Tuen Mun citizens.

In the carnival, there was safety quiz competition that drew the attention of many residents.

The local fire station personnel are equally concerned in rural area fire protection. As a result of concerted efforts being contributed by the concerned government departments since 1999, the hill fire statistics has been steadily kept low in year 2000 and 2001. Further, due to prompt response and dedication of the Fire Services personnel in fire fighting operations, the hill fires have always been quickly put under control from developing into a serious magnitude to threaten nearby life and property.

Visit to a fire station by students

Others: Fire safety, electricity safety

The Tuen Mun District Fire Safety Committee (TMDFSC) was established in 1998 to promote fire safety matters in Tuen Mun. The TMDFSC comprising representatives from various government departments and members from the public has a conferred mission to promote fire safety through a yearlong programme that includes fire prevention campaigns, seminars, exhibitions and carnivals. Being the core member in the TMDFSC, the Fire Services personnel posted to the fire stations in Tuen Mun district play a leading role and tender full support in implementing the various associated activities in addition to their prime fire fighting and rescue duties.

Electricity safety is of vital importance to the community. As such, a series of promotional campaigns on electricity safety were organized by the Electrical Safety Workgroup in collaboration with power company and various public organizations. These campaigns aimed at arousing community awareness in power safety. Various activities have been organized including safety talks, game booths, road shows and safety quizzes conducted at different locations in Tuen Mun since June 2000.

Visit to a power station by youth

"Accidents" in the following injury areas:
Traffic accident promotion

Police in Tuen Mun District mount fortnightly campaigns each month to educate road users on road safety. Police Officers and Traffic Warden are engaged at traffic accident black spots to enforce traffic violations as well as issue verbal warnings for minor breaches while Junior Police Call members and Road Safety Ambassadors are engaged to promote proper use of road crossings.

Violence prevention: Crime prevention

The Police in Tuen Mun District, assisted by other government departments and Non-Government Organizations (NGO), has launched a number of anti-juvenile crime initiatives in the past few years with a view to reduce the number of instances of young people committing crimes.

Newspaper to promote crime prevention

Suicide prevention: Suicide prevention

Reviewing the statistics data from the Hong Kong Police Force, the incidents of suicide in Tuen Mun is in a rising trend. The Working Committee is proposing to form a working group to manage this issue in the coming years.

Programs aiming at "High risk-groups": Children, elderlies

The Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapists would provide intervention sessions for clients at the Day Care Centres and Hostels to decrease the risk of fall. The Occupational Therapists would provide Assessment for Activities of Daily Living and recommend for any home safety modification e.g. handrail in bathroom and no-slippery tape or sheet to help enhancing the home safety for senior citizens. The Physiotherapists would re-educate and strengthen clients’ postural muscles improving the balance and she would also recommend Hip-protectors to high-risk clients to minimize injury of fall.

Surveillance of injuries: Accident & Emergency Department of Tuen Mun Hospital Health Information and Record Office of Tuen Mun Hospital

Improving community safety is an effective means for the continuous improvement of the quality of life of all citizens. As the inhabitants are less prone to injuries, the way of life in the community would be much happier and healthier.

Figure: General picture of injury pattern (Source : Tuen Mun Hospital)