Lee Hysan Foundation, a strategic partner and sponsor of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), has generously supported the University’s initiatives to tackle elder abuse and adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, namely “Collaborative Efforts to Intervene and Prevent Elder Abuse” project and “Healthy Spine” project respectively.
The “Collaborative Efforts to Intervene and Prevent Elder Abuse” project will create the first evidence-based protocol for detecting, intervening and preventing elder abuse and aims to raise community awareness of the issue in the long run. The project will be spearheaded by the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, with expert input from its five disciplines of Applied Social Sciences, Nursing, Optometry, Rehabilitation Sciences, and Health Technology and Informatics. It will also collaborate with external partners, including six NGOs and two medical professional bodies.
PolyU’s project team will develop a set of screening tools, a practice manual and training procedures to better handle and manage cases of elder abuse. The abuse assessment service will initially be made available to 1,500 elderly people, with 400 at-risk and confirmed abuse cases also receiving a follow-up service from the project. In addition, the team will run a training and awareness programme to equip 2,000 elderly people and their caregivers, as well as 600 professionals and students, with the knowledge to detect elder abuse.
The “Healthy Spine Project” involves the development and community application of non-surgical treatment for adolescents aged between 10 and 15 years old with mild to moderate adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), an abnormal curvature of the spine that appears in late childhood or adolescence and is the third most common health problem among students in Hong Kong. Early intervention is crucial to prevent further deterioration of the spine, however, existing interventions impose restrictions on patients’ mobility.
A multi-disciplinary team led by Dr Joanne Yip, Associate Professor of PolyU’s Institute of Textiles and Clothing and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Textiles, collaborated with researchers from the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong to develop products offering more effective treatment for AIS. The project will provide AIS screening for 4,500 students and early non-surgical intervention for 110 students with mild to moderate AIS, using three different medical garments recently developed in Hong Kong. The garments are designed to be functional and wearable, combining advanced textile and garment technologies with the innovative use of sensors to treat patients. A pre-clinical trial of the garments will be conducted in the community, after which they will be commercialised to provide a more viable way for AIS sufferers to treat their condition.
