This year, in addition to providing premium contact centre services to our customers, Epro Telecom has taken a further step to support the social integration of people with mental impairment (“MI”) in Hong Kong. In April 2017, Epro Telecom has teamed up with The Mental Health Association of Hong Kong to launch a brand new continuous volunteer program called “Epro Tele-Caring Program”.
Due to limited resources, all types of support available to those people with MI are mainly focused on fulfilling their basic needs such as vocational skill training and daily life support.
Other essential needs such as socialization are usually overlooked, which is also one of the reasons why most of the people with MI have a very limited social circle. The lack of support in this area often resulted in putting extra burden to those parents / guardians who have to take care of their physical as well as emotional needs. In the long run, it would impose additional psychological burden on the people with MI as well as their caretakers and affecting their mental health.
“Epro Tele-Caring Program” is volunteer caring call service aims to lend a non-judgmental and supportive ear to the people with MI to express their feelings and emotions, and ultimately help them expanding their social circle and enhancing self-confidence.
Each volunteer participant in “Erpo Tele-Caring Program” would be matched with a person with MI from The Mental Health Association of Hong Kong as partner throughout the program. During the program, volunteers will call and communicate with their partners regularly to provide caring and emotional support over the phone.
In order to help our volunteers becoming a caring caller, Epro Telecom organized a one-day training at Mental Health Association of Hong Kong Jockey Club building on 01 April 2017. After the training, volunteers met their partners face to face for the first time and shared a delicious lunch together in a cheerful and friendly atmosphere.
After the training, one of the volunteers expressed that, “Today’s training taught me a lot of skills of how to communicate with the people with MI, and by learning more about their characteristic have definitely better prepared me to have a better communication with my partner. One thing that surprised me the most today is even it is the first time I meet my partner, but we already chatted like a longtime friend. After today’s meeting, I look forward to more opportunities to chat with my partner over the course of the program.”