Lingnan University hosts Cross-boundary Elderly Care Symposium in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to increase professional exchanges

Lingnan University has been actively responding to the national strategy to address an aging population, and is committed to coordinating the development of elderly care services and senior welfare within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Greater Bay Area). Following earlier initiatives facilitating professional exchanges and institutional collaboration in elderly care throughout the Greater Bay Area, Lingnan again played a bridging and platform role on Lingnan University has been actively responding to the national strategy to address an aging population, and is committed to coordinating the development of elderly care services and senior welfare within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Greater Bay Area). Following earlier initiatives facilitating professional exchanges and institutional collaboration in elderly care throughout the Greater Bay Area, Lingnan again played a bridging and platform role on 19 July, co-hosting the Cross-boundary Elderly Care and Community Development Symposium in the Greater Bay Area in Hong Kong SAR, together with experts from the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Department of Urban Planning and Design and the Department of Social Work at The University of Hong Kong, and the School of Government of Sun Yat-sen University. The symposium encourages in-depth exchanges and collaboration on the integration of cross-boundary elderly care, service delivery models, and community space planning.

The experts and scholars have systematically researched seniors in Hong Kong and Macao who wish to move north for elderly care, cross-boundary services, and institutional cooperation. They explained the latest research findings and policy analyses, and pointed out that due to the rapid aging of the population and development of the silver economy in the Greater Bay Area, cross-boundary elderly care has shifted from exploratory efforts to institutionalised discussions. There is an urgent need to strengthen regional cooperation and innovation in welfare linkage, medical security, service quality regulation, and community-friendly aging planning.

They emphasised that the close geographical, social, and cultural ties between Guangdong, Hong Kong SAR, and Macao SAR provide a solid foundation for cooperation in elderly care, although institutional differences, legal and regulatory discrepancies, and imbalanced service provision must also be addressed. The symposium also focused on the interaction between cross-boundary elderly care and related fields such as medical services, long-term care security, and digital health technology. Discussions concerned using electronic health records, telemedicine, and smart elderly care platforms to improve the accessibility and safety of the services. Participants also discussed gradually expanding elderly care through pilot projects, exploring the possibility of medical vouchers and related welfare arrangements in a cross-boundary context, promoting mutual recognition of service evaluation and quality standards, and strengthening joint training, practical exchanges, and collaborative research among professional teams in the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong SAR.

Lingnan’s School of Graduate Studies and Institute of Policy Studies will continue to focus on interdisciplinary research + policy dialogue + practical connection, working with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Sun Yat-sen University, and other partners. There will be more workshops, seminars, and joint research on elderly care service models, mobility, and family caregiving networks, contributing to creating a high-quality, sustainable elderly care cooperation system in the Greater Bay Area.

This is all part of Lingnan’s project "Enhancing elderly services through knowledge sharing and capacity building in the Greater Bay Area", supported by the Lingnan University Innovation and Impact Fund and sponsored by the Knowledge Transfer Fund of the University Grants Committee.