TY - JOUR
T1 - Social Work at the Chinese Medicine System in Hong Kong
T2 - Opportunities and Challenges
AU - Chan, Kai Fong
AU - Ng, Petrus Y N
AU - Bian, Zhaoxiang
AU - Shi, Yan
AU - Lee, Siu Ping
AU - Ng, Ka Ying
N1 - Funding Information:
The project “Chinese Medical Social Service Pilot Project” was supported by a grant from the S K Yee Medical Foundation.
PY - 2008/4
Y1 - 2008/4
N2 - Dealing with health and disease is an area of concern for social workers. The establishment of medical social service in a health setting has more than 100 years of history in the USA and more than 60 years in Hong Kong. Despite the increasing popularity of Chinese Medicine (CM) used by the Hong Kong people, there has been no medical social service presence in the CM system. A pilot project demonstrated a successful interdisciplinary collaboration model between social work and CM irrespective of different social work methods, that is, individual work, groupwork, and community-based services. In this article, we will relate the opportunities and difficulties that we encountered in setting up the first medical social service in the CM system. Drawing on our experience, we found that both professions benefited from the interdisciplinary collaboration. CM was able to expand its scope of service to increase the service quality and promote primary health care in the community with the support of social work. Conversely, social workers found that CM is a good resource for providing innovative services to meet the various needs of the people in the community. There was also a ripple effect of incorporating CM elements into social service. The interface between the disciplines of social work and CM can widen the scope of their contributions on health. Implications for CM social service in social work will also be examined.
AB - Dealing with health and disease is an area of concern for social workers. The establishment of medical social service in a health setting has more than 100 years of history in the USA and more than 60 years in Hong Kong. Despite the increasing popularity of Chinese Medicine (CM) used by the Hong Kong people, there has been no medical social service presence in the CM system. A pilot project demonstrated a successful interdisciplinary collaboration model between social work and CM irrespective of different social work methods, that is, individual work, groupwork, and community-based services. In this article, we will relate the opportunities and difficulties that we encountered in setting up the first medical social service in the CM system. Drawing on our experience, we found that both professions benefited from the interdisciplinary collaboration. CM was able to expand its scope of service to increase the service quality and promote primary health care in the community with the support of social work. Conversely, social workers found that CM is a good resource for providing innovative services to meet the various needs of the people in the community. There was also a ripple effect of incorporating CM elements into social service. The interface between the disciplines of social work and CM can widen the scope of their contributions on health. Implications for CM social service in social work will also be examined.
KW - Chinese medicine
KW - Hong Kong
KW - Interdisciplinary collaboration
KW - Medical social service
KW - Social work
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=47249114059&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1300/J010v46n04_03
DO - 10.1300/J010v46n04_03
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 18589563
AN - SCOPUS:47249114059
SN - 0098-1389
VL - 46
SP - 39
EP - 55
JO - Social Work in Health Care
JF - Social Work in Health Care
IS - 4
ER -