Jointly initiated by the Foundation and GenHK, the Guardians of the Silver Age (“GSA”) was launched in 2020 with the goal to redefine eldercare and promote Elder-Centric Compassion across the industry. Not only does it provide training to frontline care workers and supervisors, in the past two years, it has also successfully pioneered a school pilot programme to nurture the same values and mindset among the young generation in secondary schools.
At the Summit, GSA’s representatives, employers, school partners and programme participants shared the significant impact GSA has made since its launch. The Foundation and GenHK also unveiled GSA 2.0 which will further focus on catalysing change in service units and schools, with the goal to deepen the compassion value in the community and promote the vision of creating a society where “Everyone is a Guardian of the Silver Age and Everywhere has a Guardian of the Silver Age”.
Navigating the ageing society with the Elder-Centric Compassionate approach
In Hong Kong, the percentage of people aged 65 and older is increasing sharply from 20.5% in 2021 to the projected 36.0% in 2046, according to the Census and Statistics Department. Meanwhile, the talent gap in the eldercare industry has remained high at around 20%.
While eldercare workers play a pivotal role in safeguarding the well-being of older adults, some have overlooked service quality and respect for the elderly due to the intense workload and lack of behavioural skills and mindset training. Therefore, the elderly are not getting the dignified care they deserve, and this is the pressing social problem GSA intends to solve.
At the Summit, Professor Terry Lum of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, and Henry G. Leong Professor in Social Work and Social Administration, shared some important findings from his independent research commissioned by GenHK to evaluate the effectiveness of the GSA bootcamp in training frontline care workers. The study indicates that the training effectively bridges the skill gap and enables care workers to transform from a task-based mindset to value-based mindset. Most importantly, the study recommends that the Elder-Centric Compassionate model can only be effectively adopted if the entire service unit shares the same value and systematically changes the culture; hence, it’s crucial for GSA 2.0 to aim at going beyond training individuals.
Ms Karen Cheung, Trustee & Chief Strategist of The D. H. Chen Foundation shared at the plenary her understanding of compassionate care by referring to the traditional Chinese Confucius virtue of self-cultivation (修身) as a basis for regulating family, state, and the world (齊家，治國，平天下). Ms Cheung emphasised that individuals should be guided from a young age to first take good care of themselves, before extending care to their senior family members and the broader community. For this, Ms Cheung also cited the motto of her grandfather, Dr Din Hwa Chen, who was the Founder of The D. H. Chen Foundation: “Care for others as well as you would care for yourself.”
Ms Cheung acknowledged that it can be challenging to fully empathise with the elderly. “We have not personally experienced the ageing process so we can only rely on imagination (of ageing) before we can provide proper elderly care,” Ms Cheung remarked. However, she believed that by guiding individuals from a young age to understand that even small acts can have a significant influence on one’s thoughts and behaviours, it would become natural for everyone to be motivated to take care of the most in need – be they young or old, within the family or in the broader community.
“I am very pleased to hear that the GSA alumni have been inspired to care more for their own senior family members while learning to provide care for the elderly at facilities.” She added. ”
Driving systemic change in the eldercare sector and from schools
Since its launch in 2020, GSA has made a significant impact in the society and has trained and upskilled more than 200 and 300 elder-centric compassion frontline care workers and practitioners respectively. Professor Lum’s research also indicated that both GSA graduates and employers agreed that the bootcamp training was effective in equipping care workers with technical skills as well as the mindset needed for delivering dignified eldercare service; graduates also demonstrated more confidence in providing care.
As one of the employers of GSA graduates, Ms. Janelle Chan, Head of Service (Elderly Services) of Hong Kong Children and Youth Services shared, “We observe a marked difference in the quality of service provided by GSA graduates. They are attentive to the elderly’s unique needs and able to support their daily routines with respect. Having GSA graduates at our eldercare centres helps promote a compassionate mindset among our teams, and we are determined to continue building this positive culture throughout our organisation.”
Furthermore, GSA also recognises the importance of cultivating compassion among the younger generation as well as inspiring them to reimagine eldercare. Working with Lok Sin Tong Yu Kan Hing Secondary School, GSA’s school pilot programme provided students the exposure to eldercare service, allowing them to understand the industry and ageing with first-hand experience. This helps foster compassion-based values among the students which they could integrate into their daily lives at home, at work and in the community. Ms. Ling See Yan, Principal of Lok Sin Tong Yu Kan Hing Secondary School, said, “The pilot programme plays a prominent role in nurturing our students’ sense of responsibility and instilling compassion-based values. Its approach has helped our students and teachers internalise the understanding for compassion, which is reflected in their daily lives and how they interact with people.”
GSA 2.0: Forging ahead with the next stage of transformation
Approaching the fourth year, GSA 2.0 envisions to build a society where “Everyone is a Guardian of the Silver Age and Everywhere has a Guardian of the Silver Age”. From training individual frontline care workers, GSA will expand to a service unit-based talent training and development approach. This new model aims to instill the value of compassion across all levels throughout the service unit and support them to enhance daily operation and adopt change in the services they provide, so as to drive a more sustainable and long-lasting outcome in the industry. At the end of this phase, GSA envisages to establish a set of guidelines with best practices for building an elder-centric compassion service unit, which will facilitate a wider sector adoption.
The school pilot programme will also be extended from an individual level to the wider community, sowing the seeds of compassion in families and the community. Through collaborating with more schools, it aims to nurture a compassionate next-generation pool of talents and more guardians of the silver age.
Mr. Brian Cheng, CEO of Generation Hong Kong, said, “A compassionate mindset is fundamental to ensuring our elderly can get quality care and live with respect and dignity in their silver years. We aspire to transform the way ageing and eldercare are generally perceived, inspiring more people to consider developing a career in the industry and becoming part of a greater cause. Forging ahead with GSA 2.0, we will continue to work closely with the Foundation and our trusted partners to cultivate more change champions in the industry, schools and the wider community.”
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About the “Guardian of the Silver Age” programme
The D. H. Chen Foundation and Generation Hong Kong co-initiated the “Guardian of the Silver Age” programme in 2020, adhering to the value of Elder-Centric Compassion with the goal to redefine eldercare. It aims to address the challenges of the ageing population by driving innovative development within the sector, exploring new possibilities of the silver age, as well as promoting high-quality and dignified life for the elderly. The initial phase of the “Guardian of the Silver Age” programme offered free full-time elder-care bootcamp trainings to cultivate new talents who aspire to develop a career in the eldercare industry. Meanwhile, the programme also provided short-term certificate courses to enhance the skills of supervisors, so as to optimise person-centred services for the elderly. Phase two of GSA will commence in August 2024, the programme will collaborate with selected eldercare service units in a unit-based approach. By cultivating values of Elder-Centric Compassion across all levels within the organisation, which will ultimately drive change in the eldercare ecosystem. The programme will also partner with more schools to promote compassion in the broader community, so as to realise the vision of “Everyone is a silver guardian, and there are silver guardians everywhere.”
About The D. H. Chen Foundation
The D. H. Chen Foundation is a Hong Kong family philanthropic trust established in 1970 by Dr. Din Hwa Chen, an ardent philanthropist and a devout Buddhist who also founded the Nan Fung Group. The Foundation has been steering and supporting numerous innovative, impactful and sustainable community initiatives to enrich lives through its five strategies, namely “Initiate, Capacity Building, Innovate, Catalyst for Collaboration, and Impact-Driven”. Aspiring to build a compassionate society and promote compassion-based values, the Foundation endeavours to put compassion into action through the work of our five Institutes – a realisation of Dr. Chen’s philosophy – “Care for others as well as you would care for yourself”.
About Generation Hong Kong
Generation is a global employment nonprofit network that supports people to achieve economic mobility so they can change their lives. We train and place adults into careers that would otherwise be inaccessible and seek to improve how education to employment systems function. Generation was launched in 2015 and consists of a global hub and a network of in-country affiliates that spans 17 countries. Generation HK was established in 2018. To date, Generation has more than 115,000 graduates who have earned more than $1 billion in wages, and works with more than 14,000 employers, implementation partners, and funders. For more, visit 
https://en.hongkong.generation.org/
