Dementia is one of the main causes of disability among elderly people. It is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects elderly people’s ability to perform daily living activities. Alzheimer’s disease is the main subtype of dementia and causes declining memory, reasoning, and communication skills. They also have behavioural and psychological symptoms, such as depression and aggression. It is essential for them to maintain good oral health, as oral health is an important and integral part of their general health. Neglecting oral health allows dental diseases to develop, and these diseases are difficult and costly to treat. However, dental diseases can be treated with ambulatory care rather than hospitalisation and emergency care. Elderly people should establish daily oral hygiene care routines during the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. They should have regular dental examinations and early minimal interventions to prevent the need for extensive and complicated procedures. Maintaining oral health becomes challenging, however, when Alzheimer’s disease progresses to the middle and late stages. Because elderly people might forget or lose interest in keeping their teeth healthy, caretakers and community health workers may need to take over this task. Dentists should provide guidance on the maintenance of oral health, as the techniques used to provide this support vary depending on the elderly people concerned. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of oral health and the importance of oral care for elderly people with Alzheimer’s disease. The paper also discusses appropriate dental interventions and techniques for maintaining good oral health and helping people with Alzheimer’s to enjoy a satisfactory quality of life.

Dementia is a clinical syndrome of loss of intellectual capability. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the dominant subtype of dementia and is common among the elderly. Because of impaired memory and disturbed executive functioning, the elderly with AD often have difficulty to perform oral hygiene practice and are at high risk of dental caries and periodontal diseases. These dental problems are ambulatory care-sensitive conditions where effective community dental care can help prevent the need for hospital admission. Community dental care practitioners can formulate effective strategies for the elderly with AD to reduce their risk of dental diseases. One of these strategies is to integrate 5S into oral hygiene practice. 5S was originally developed for organising spaces for people to work efficiently, effectively, and safely. It consists of five steps which are (i) sorting to remove unnecessary items, (ii) setting-in-order to place the items in order of flow, (iii) shining to clean and maintain the environment, (iv) standardising to establish discipline for good oral hygiene habits, and (v) sustaining to keep 5S going by auditing and improving the environment and oral hygiene practice. This system helps the elderly with AD to put things where they belong and keep the workplace clean. Moreover, it facilitates the elderly with AD to perform oral hygiene practice without wasting time and risking injury. This paper discusses the use of 5S to help the elderly with AD build and sustain an effective oral hygiene practice habit to improve their oral health.

This study investigated the working hours, work-life balance and mental health of 100 construction workers in a place without Standard Working Hour legislation, Hong Kong, using a questionnaire survey. Results showed these participants had longer working hours (54 hours/week) than many other workers in Hong Kong and in many other places. However, the results did not show the work-life balance was as poor as another long working hour industry in Hong Kong, public doctors. The mental health condition (mean GHQ score 9.66) was not shown to be poor. There existed some associations among long working hours, poor work-life balance and poor mental health condition. To conclude, construction workers in Hong Kong, without Standard Working Hour legislation, had long working hours but there was insufficient evidence to show they have poor work-life balance and poor mental health. There was insufficient evidence to show the high risk of occupational injuries was related to poor work-life balance and poor mental health.

This study investigated the relationship of working hour, work-life balance and mental health conditions in full-time retail industry workers in Hong Kong, an area without standard working hour legislation, in a follow up study during reduction in retail sales. Two questionnaire surveys were conducted, one in 2014 and the other one in 2015. Each survey comprised 100 retail industry workers in the same retail industry area in an anonymous basis. In 2014 the working hour was long (51.92 hours per week). During this reduction in retail sales there was a significant reduction in the originally long working hours (from 51.92 hours to 47.25 hours, p<0.0001), an increase in daily hours of personal or private activities (3.06 hours to 3.606 hours, not statistical significant), a significant increase in self-perceived work-life balance (from 3.76 to 4.51, p=0.0009), a decrease in number of workers having problems due to disturbed work-life balance, and a significant decrease in the high mental health score (from 18.93 to 15.36, p=0.0003) indicating improvement in mental health conditions. The findings provide scientific evidence for policy making, the working hour in an area without standard working hour legislation could be long. Reduction in working hour resulted in an improvement in work-life balance and mental health conditions.

Business adaptability and adjustability is highly important for the business development. It was suggested human resource managers and executives could pay an important contribution to this area. The aim of this study was to search the literature to see how the human resource managers and executives can improve the business adaptability and change of the companies. The internet was searched using various search engines like Google Scholars, Proquest and Google using keywords like human resource management, business adaptability and adjustability and business resilience. All selected papers were individually studied and any relevant materials were identified. Result showed that there were roles of human resource managers and executives in building business adaptability and adjustability such as acting as strategic partners, employee sponsors or advocates, change mentors and there were contributions which include transition the human resource department to a profitability factor; making profit to the company and engaging in people-focused approach to business continuity planning for crisis.

This literature review paper examined the development of time banking in Hong Kong. Time banking is a system of transaction using time. Members of a time bank can earn time credits through work which they can spend these credits later. Time banking has become an international movement with participants included people in different age groups, local businesses, staff from participating organizations and even the organizations themselves. This diversity of time banking systems in different areas showed modifications of time banking systems can increase their uses, functions and effectiveness, and also can improve their versatility so as to provide tailor-made applications on different problems in different situations. Although around half a century has passed after the first time bank appeared (Miller, 2008), there was only one time bank in Hong Kong involving the elderly care service and the number of participants were less than 200 (Tsui, 2018; Ho, 2018; Lee, 2018). To improve this situation it is necessary to see whether it is possible to modify the present time banking system so that more extensive and effective applications can be provided. The present paper will address this gap of knowledge through proposing a time banking system on young people with the novel time credit multiplier concept with an aim to alleviate the serious and ever increasing manpower shortage problem of the elderly care services in Hong Kong.