Culture and Sport - Macao Yearbook

Health and Social Welfare
also provides financial aid and technical support to encourage community groups to launch various
anti-drug campaigns. The Social Welfare Bureau runs the Anti-drug Education Resource Centre and
the Healthy Life Education Centre to popularise anti-drug education and strengthen the prevention
of drug abuse in childhood.
During 2008, the Social Welfare Bureau held anti-drug training courses and lectures for 6,183
people from schools, the community at large and various professions. Its “Education for a Healthy
Life” educational course about drugs and medicine, which has been specially designed for students
aged between five and 12, was attended by a total of 20,603 pupils from 56 primary schools. “Be
Wise and Cool”, another course on the same subjects for junior secondary school students was
attended by 5,963 Form One to Form Three students from 13 secondary schools.
With regard to treatment and rehabilitation, the Social Welfare Bureau has established a
Comprehensive Drug Treatment Services Centre, which provides complete and diversified voluntary
treatment and rehabilitation services for drug-dependent people. They include outpatient drug
addiction treatment, short-term inpatient drug addiction treatment, and health workshops to facilitate
learning and recreation. During 2008, 388 drug addicts received outpatient drug-dependency
treatment services. Of these, 86 were seeking help for the first time. Meanwhile, the centre’s shortterm
detoxification inpatient service was used on a total of 84 occasions.
The Social Welfare Bureau also provides financial aid and technical support to non-governmental
drug-treatment organisations. They include five non-profit-making organisations and volunteer
community groups, four rehabilitation shelters, an outreach treatment service for addicts, an outreach
treatment service for drug-dependent youths, and a self-help rehabilitation service for addicts.
Most of these receive subsidies from the Social Welfare Bureau. In 2008, 77 drug addicts received
rehabilitation services, 5,813 received outreach drug addiction treatment services and 2,439 drugdependent
youngsters and problem juveniles received services from these organisations. The selfhelp
addiction treatment service helped 5,253 former addicts reintegrate into the community.
To promote the diversification of drug addiction treatment services, the Social Welfare Bureau
also offers financial and technical support to private organisations. It has helped an organisation
to launch a free outpatient service to help people quit smoking, which helped 389 people on 1,230
occasions in 2008.
Social Security Fund
Macao’s social security contribution system to protect employees was established in 1989. The
Social Security Fund Authority was established on 23 March 1990 to ensure that contribution
responsibilities were honoured. The authority is a financially and administratively independent entity
subordinate to the Secretary for Economy and Finance. Its funds are derived from the contributions
of both employers and employees, an appropriation from the gaming industry’s revenue, the MSAR
Government’s allocation of one percent of total budget revenue, and interest payments received
from Social Security Fund investments.
Contributions are made to the fund by local employees, non-local employees, casual workers,
public servants and self-employed workers, as well as in the form of voluntary payments. Apart
from voluntary contributors and self-employed persons, all employers must register and contribute
to the Social Security Fund on behalf of their employees, so that employees may enjoy the welfare
services, such as pensions, disability gratuities, sickness benefits and unemployment benefits that
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