Caregiver Tragedies and the Limits of Community Care: Structural Constraints and Policy Discourses in Hong Kong

Amid rapid demographic ageing, East Asian welfare regimes increasingly rely on unsupported familialism, placing growing pressure on informal caregivers. In Hong Kong, this structural strain has been reflected in a series of caregiving-related tragedies, including murder-suicides among older couples and families with disabled members. While existing literature often focuses on the absolute shortage of long-term care resources, this paper examines the tension between the structural limitations of community support services and the discursive strategies through which such crises are interpreted in policy discourse.

This study combines policy document analysis with Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Empirically, it analyses key Hong Kong government policy documents from 2015 to 2025, including Policy Addresses, budget speeches, the 2025 Ombudsman’s investigative report on community care services, and official press releases responding to caregiving tragedies, alongside relevant empirical reports on Hong Kong’s community care system.

The analysis reveals a significant mismatch between structural conditions and policy narratives. Despite nominal increases in care vouchers, access to respite and community support services remains constrained by administrative gatekeeping and spatial inequalities. However, official responses to caregiving tragedies tend to frame these incidents primarily through psychological narratives of caregiver stress and emotional breakdown. The CDA findings show that policy discourse frequently emphasises individual resilience, counselling support, and help-seeking behaviour, while paying limited attention to structural limitations within the care system.

The paper argues that such discursive framing may inadvertently shift responsibility for caregiving crises toward individuals and families. It highlights the need to move beyond psychologicalised responses and reconsider the role of the state in providing substantive material support within ageing East Asian welfare regimes.