[4 June, 2008] – Since its foundation in 2001, the Caritas Family Crisis Support Centre has provided support for family crises throughout the territory. It represented the first support centre of its kind in Hong Kong and its efforts in responding to family-related problems have been well-recognized in the community.

As part of its crises relief efforts, the Caritas Family Crisis Support Centre provides hotline services for those in need. Despite continuous endeavours to improve staffing arrangements and workflow, the hotline services have been hampered by limited resources and have not been able to significantly increase the number of crisis calls handled. In response to the overwhelming demand for hotlines services, the Li Ka Shing Foundation made a sponsorship to the Caritas Family Crisis Support Centre last year.  This financial support has enabled the doubling of manpower for the Family Crisis Line and other hotlines and provided new office premises with advanced telephone and computer systems, culminating in the launch of the Caritas Family Crisis Line & Education Center on 15 April, 2008.

In addition to the Caritas Family Crisis Line (tel. no. 18288), the Caritas Family Crisis Line & Education Center offers several dedicated services, including: Extra-Marital Affairs Hotline (tel. no. 2537 7247), Debt and Financial Capability Hotline (tel. no. 2832 2929), Children Hotline (tel. no. 2522 2929), Love Hotline (tel. no. 3904 3100) and Addiction Hotline (tel. no. 3904 3098). The new Center will also offer support groups and community education.

Following the increased manpower and installation of the new telephone system, the number of calls handled by the Caritas Family Crisis Line & Education Center has improved significantly, resulting in more timely responses to those in need.

The Caritas Family Crisis Line & Education Center is subvented by the Social Welfare Department and sponsored by the Li Ka Shing Foundation. It clearly reflects the benefits of public-private partnership and for this the Caritas Family Crisis Support Centre expressed their thanks to the Government and the Li Ka Shing Foundation for their generous support. In addition to providing financial aid, the Li Ka Shing Foundation has also offered other resources, such as professional support on website design, telephone system and hotline recording.

Services Provided by the Caritas Family Crises Line & Education Center

The Family Crisis Line provides 24-hour services, while the other hotlines are open from 12 noon to 11pm, every Monday to Friday, except for the Children Hotline which operates from 4pm – 9pm every Monday to Friday. Crisis calls requiring prompt intervention outside the service hours would be handled by the Family Crisis Line.

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