GOVERNMENT efforts to fight ignorance about the mentally handicapped were insufficient on their own, the Governor's wife, Mrs Lavender Patten, said yesterday.
Speaking at the opening of the Hongkong Association for the Mentally Handicapped's Yuen Long Morninglight School at Fairview Park, Mrs Patten said: ''It is unfortunate that there is still resistance in some quarters to integrating mentally handicapped persons into the community.
''This often arises from inadequate understanding or prejudice caused by ignorance.
''The most effective answer to dispelling such misconceptions is further public education, and more publicity . . . I am confident that sustained public education will bring a better understanding of disabled people.
''In this respect, the Government has announced that it will step up its publicity effort this year, next year and beyond.
''But government efforts alone are not enough. Everyone in the community should play an active part in spreading the message about understanding and accepting people with all kinds of disabilities.'' Mrs Patten, the association's patron, admitted that before coming to Hongkong she knew no more than the average person about the mentally handicapped, but visits to the association's many schools, homes, training centres and workshops had taught her whatan inspiration they were to others.