The Jockey Club CADENZA Hub (JCCH), established in 2009 with funding from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, marked a new milestone as it celebrated its tenth anniversary today (14 December). The recently renovated Hub offers enhanced preventive primary healthcare and day care services to further promote active and positive ageing in the community.

Guests at the ceremony today included Club Steward Dr Eric Li Ka Cheung; Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung; Chairman of Elderly Commission Dr Lam Ching Choi; and Jockey Club CADENZA Project Director Professor Jean Woo.

In his opening address, Dr Li said the Club, which has designated the elderly as one of its strategic areas of focus, was committed to addressing the challenges arising from a rapidly ageing society through funding and initiating different elderly programmes. “The Club has also been keen to integrate technology with elderly services. It has encouraged organisations to initiate projects with innovative approaches and facilitated cross-sectoral collaboration to create an elderly and age-friendly environment in the community,” he said.

Located in Tai Po, JCCH, which serves the middle-aged and the elderly, is an innovative community service model under “CADENZA: A Jockey Club Initiative for Seniors”, a project initiated by the Trust and managed by The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Adopting the “medical-social collaboration” model, JCCH provides primary healthcare service and also serves as a day care centre for the elderly suffering from dementia. It includes a team of multi-disciplinary professionals that provides one-stop health management and support services, such as physical therapy, fitness training and health talks. JCCH has recorded an attendance rate of some 275,000 since its opening.

Owing to growing demand for elderly services, the Trust approved a further donation of HK$36.8 million last year to support JCCH’s renovation and service enhancement. The newly-renovated Hub is equipped with a new fitness training system, “Smart Fit”, which adopts aerospace technology. “Smart Fit” includes a set of six pieces of training equipment which have automatic adjustment mechanisms and computerised systems to record users’ training performance and health conditions. The training system allows users to personalise their muscle training programmes safely, enabling them to stay fit and promote active ageing.

To facilitate ageing in place, JCCH has expanded its day care service capacity for dementia patients. It has also launched various primary healthcare services which include nurse consultations and interactive rehabilitation training services for discharged stroke patients to reduce their chances of re-admission. In addition, JCCH hopes to further raise public awareness of primary healthcare among the elderly by organising community health education programmes, encouraging them to live a healthier lifestyle and building Hong Kong into an age-friendly city.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club

Founded in 1884, The Hong Kong Jockey Club is a world-class racing club that acts continuously for the betterment of our society. The Club has a unique integrated business model, comprising racing and racecourse entertainment, a membership club, responsible sports wagering and lottery, and charities and community contribution. Through this model, the Club generates economic and social value for the community and supports the Government in combatting illegal gambling. In 2018/19, the Club made a record return to the Government of HK$23.3 billion in duty and profits tax and contributed HK$1.3 billion to the Lotteries Fund. Approved charity and community donations were HK$4.3 billion. The Club is Hong Kong's largest single taxpayer and one of the city’s major employers. Its Charities Trust is also one of the world's top ten charity donors. The Club is always "riding high together for a better future" with the people of Hong Kong.