According to the World Health Organization, the proportion of people aged over 60 is growing faster than any other age group in almost every country in the world. In Hong Kong, as in other Asian nations, the challenge of an ageing population is happening far more rapidly than in the West. Government figures predict that the proportion of our population aged 65 and above is set to double, to 31% by 2041. By 2050, Hong Kong will be one of the oldest places in the world, surpassing most Western countries.

Professor Terry Lum Yat-Sang is the Henry G Leong Professor in Social Work and Social Administration and Head of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong (HKU). Professor Lum is an expert in long-term care policy, productive ageing, and ageing-in-place. HKU was the first training institute in the city to offer professional social work education when it began training social workers in 1950 and later established the Department of Social Work in 1967.

Professor Lum’s research findings on ageing-in-place in low income public rental housing estates have been adopted by the largest non-profit housing solution provider in Hong Kong to develop its ageing-in-place programme for elderly tenants. He is currently in charge of the implementation of an age-friendly city project in two districts in Hong Kong. Professor Lum’s research team is one of the very few teams in the world that has the expertise of both developing case-mix and outcome systems for long-term care and intervention to promote productive ageing of older people in rapidly ageing societies.

He has overseen several large policy research projects funded by the government to reshape the long-term care infrastructure of Hong Kong. Currently he is the principal investigator on a three-year project, to be completed this year, on the enhancement of the infrastructure of long-term care in Hong Kong. The project will help the government to redesign its long-term care system for frail elders. This new system is essential for preparing Hong Kong to face the challenge for the rapidly ageing population and set the foundation for the successful implementation of the new “money follows the old person” ageing policy and the carer allowance programme.

Professor Lum spent 12 years at the School of Social Work, the University of Minnesota, US, before joining HKU in 2011 as an Associate Professor at the Department of Social Work and Social Administration. From 2013 to 2014, he was the Director of Master of Social Work Programme. He was made Deputy Head in 2014 and Head of the Department in 2015.

In 2001, Professor Lum was awarded the prestigious Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholar award. He has been co-convener of the Chinese Gerontological Studies Interest Group of the Gerontology Society of America since 2009 and was a member of the Executive Committee of the Social Research, Policy and Practice Section of the Gerontological Society of America from 2010 to 2012. In 2011, he was elected as a Fellow by the Gerontological Society of America.

Locally, he is a member of the Hong Kong Health Forum, the Specialised Committee on Elderly Service at the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, the Social Services Advisory Committee at the Salvation Army, the Central Advising Committee of the Senior Policy Call at the Hong Kong Police Force, and the Advisory Committee at the Mind-Lock Cognitive and Memory Training Centre at the Christian Family Service Centre. He has been Deputy Convenor, Healthy Ageing Strategic Research Themes at HKU since 2012. He was the Director of the Sau Po Centre on Aging at HKU from 2011 and 2015.