The Visiting Health Teams of the Department of Health (DH) organise regular health promotion activities such as health talks and support groups in 18 Elderly Health Centres across the 18 districts in Hong Kong. Reducing the risk of dementia is one of their major goals. Their monthly topics in relation to dementia include healthy lifestyle, exercise and eating, no smoking education, weight management, accident prevention and home safety, mental health check, and other common age-related disease management, such as hypertension, heart disease, stroke, diabetes mellitus, and Parkinson’s disease (Elderly Health Service, 2020, March 26).

Moreover, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) has launched a 3-years “Dementia Friendly Community Campaign” in 2018, which provides public education programmes to increase public awareness, reduce risks, and enhance care of persons with dementia and their family members (more details can be found in Part 5). This campaign emphasises the following advices on reducing risk of dementia (Social Welfare Department, 2018, December):

• Prevention of cerebrovascular diseases;
• Maintain healthy lifestyle;
• Maintain active social life and develop personal hobbies;
• Regular body check and cognitive assessment;
• Keep a positive mind;
• Reduce the chance of brain injury;
• Develop daily participation in aerobic and mind-body exercises;
• Develop Six Arts multi-cognitive domains (i.e., interpersonal and social, musical, visual-spatial, kinesthetic, linguistic, and logic-mathematical elements).

References:

Elderly Health Service, Department of Health. (2020, March 26). Visiting Health Team: Health Promotion Activities (Regular Topics). Retrieved from https://www.elderly.gov.hk/english/service_providers/promotion.html

Social Welfare Department. (2018, December). Dementia Awareness Kit. Hong Kong Retrieved from https://www.swd.gov.hk/dementiacampaign/en/doc/Dementia_Awareness_kit_en.pdf.