SINGLETON ELDERLY IN HONG KONG

million people. This means one out of every four people will be considered aged by then. People in Hong Kong are considered to be aged if they are over 65years. Hui et al, 2009). For a common young man out there, old people are stubborn individuals, who are forgetful and probably on the verge of dying. It was all about fun; waking up prepare my room and visit friends. Maybe catch up later on for lunch and movies. My parents provided all that I needed. Since I was the only child, who else could reap from this if not me? One day I eaves dropped my parents speaking of retirement. They were to retire soon after several years of hard work to provide a comfortable life for the family. I was expecting to meet all kinds of students from all over the world doing this course and this gave me lots of chills down the spine.

Considering that I still was scared of the idea of being close to old people and I was still a young man who wanted to have fun, I felt like I was making a terrible mistake. I remember the first class I attended was very iconic in my entire course study. The course instructor came accompanied with various people who require the services of social workers and placed them randomly in class. After explaining what social work was all about, he told us that in the midst of us, there were people who want to seek services of social workers. I like tackling challenges. I know I was not alone. The big books on social work were scary at first sight. But I had developed an interest and I knew nothing would be hard after all.

I decided to be positive on my progress. I was particularly interested with the singleton elderly topics. Gillanders et al, 1997). Posed that is very hard to care for the needs of the elderly. By observing the challenges we went through I got even much more motivated. Series of tasks provided by the instructor gave me more insight on the course content. In fact it is tripling according to (Kam‐shing et al, 2002) In contradiction, the resources to take care of them are still not being stretched enough to cater for them. Some have the extended family to cater for and the entire burden has to be put on social support. The aging are the custodians of aspects of culture. They are very wise and we need to share this kind of wisdom with the other generations.

As a social work student still waiting to go for practicum, the best I can do to change people’s view about the singleton elderly in Hong Kong is creating awareness. A shift in paradigm has major implications to social work. This will help me in my practicum by allowing me shift the paradigm that causes obstruction to social development of clients. I will also be able to analyze the paradigms of my client to guide me on steps to take. Singleton aging population suffers a lot when left alone with no one to fend for their needs, no one to share their pain and smiles. We will never know when we run out of time. Chan, Y. K. Lee, RNetwork size, social support and happiness in later life: A comparative study of Beijing and Hong Kong.

Journal of Happiness Studies, 7(1), 87-112. Gillanders et al. Habitat International, 33(4), 445-453. Kam‐shing et al. A Natural Locally‐Based Networking Approach for Singleton Disabled Elderly: Implementation and Case Illustration. British Journal of social work. British Journal of social work, 32(8), 1037-1049.