Time Banking for Elderly in Hong Kong: Current practice and challenges

Abstract

To reduce the burden of the ageing population, time banking can be one of the possible approaches in the community to maximise social capital. Time banking aims to exchange one’s time to serve others and the time of service can be saved as credit so as to swap for services when necessary. It can create a virtuous cycle for providing and receiving services. Several positive outcomes to service providers and recipients of time banking are identified in this review paper. Nevertheless, there is a lack of practical adoption of time banking in Hong Kong. To analyse the challenges of the adoption of time banking in Hong Kong, the current practices of time banking in Hong Kong will be evaluated. To promote time banking in Hong Kong, governmental, technical and educational support are recommended.

Keywords

• time banking, volunteering, ageing population, social capital, service learning