Volunteer service in health promotion for the elderly: An experimental project in fostering a healthy living to needy elderly by volunteer health promoters

The main purpose of this project was to help empower the ability of the clientele to explore social and personal resources as well as physical capacities for promoting their quality of life. Volunteer health promoters provided intensive care and guidance for ten needy elderly facing the deterioration of self-care capability and the unavailability of family support. The health promoter was responsible to carry out need assessment, develop a health education service model, train volunteers and evaluate the service output. The formation of a case management team also helped facilitate the service quality during the process. In this project, it was significant to illustrate that various disciplines could share with one another and to collaborate joint efforts to find new alternatives-the use of volunteer force-for the promotion and education of health service in Hong Kong. Also, it was expected to bring new insights for the professionals to explore new ways to examine and demonstrate the effect of health promotion strategies.