【明報專訊】Seniors living alone and their disabled carers lack support, and as a result, tragedies have been occurring repeatedly. The recent discovery of an old man's body that had decomposed into skeletal remains in a flat in Shui Chuen O Estate in Shatin and the case of two dead bodies found in Mei Foo Sun Chuen have yet again highlighted the need for the authorities to strengthen support services. Hong Kong's population is ageing. There are hundreds of thousands of elderly people who live alone or only with their spouses in Hong Kong. One cannot exclude the possibility that the number of "elderly doubletons" has risen further over the past two years because of the emigration wave. While seniors who are financially well-off can still manage to hire foreign domestic helpers to help themselves, for grassroots elderly doubletons, the only choice in reality is often to have "one senior taking care of another". For solitary elderly people, there is even the worry of "dying without people knowing". Although the government has proposed a series of measures in the past six months to improve support services, the effort is still insufficient. The authorities should strengthen their collaboration with non-governmental organisations and make good use of the community care teams. This will help the authorities to identify more solitary seniors and hidden carers in need of urgent assistance, and offer them better support.