TY - JOUR
T1 - Social work with youth in social withdrawal
T2 - in-home and beyond-home intervention modalities
AU - WONG, Victor C W
N1 - Funding Information:
I would like to acknowledge the support of two research grants: the General Research Fund of the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (#GRF/244707) and the Faculty Research Gant of Hong Kong Baptist University (#FRG/05-06/I-01).
PY - 2014/5
Y1 - 2014/5
N2 - This article discusses the characteristics and the process of in-home and beyond-home social work intervention with young people suffering from social withdrawal in the form of chronic self-seclusion at home. These young people are characterized by their socially avoidant behaviour and are deprived of the enjoyment of legitimate social status as a student, worker or trainee. As a way of confronting this problem, 'start where the client is' - an age-old social work intervention principle - can be read in a literal sense, i.e. taking home as a secure place for rapport-building and initial intervention with the clients to pave the way for further intervention beyond the home setting, both online and offline. Drawing on qualitative interviews with youth clients and social workers, it is argued that adopting a flexible, informal and tailor-made approach to working with youth in silent and invisible disengagement from the rest of society has to take into consideration spatial, relational and organizational dimensions of intervention modalities and possibilities if the goal of youth reengagement is to be achieved.
AB - This article discusses the characteristics and the process of in-home and beyond-home social work intervention with young people suffering from social withdrawal in the form of chronic self-seclusion at home. These young people are characterized by their socially avoidant behaviour and are deprived of the enjoyment of legitimate social status as a student, worker or trainee. As a way of confronting this problem, 'start where the client is' - an age-old social work intervention principle - can be read in a literal sense, i.e. taking home as a secure place for rapport-building and initial intervention with the clients to pave the way for further intervention beyond the home setting, both online and offline. Drawing on qualitative interviews with youth clients and social workers, it is argued that adopting a flexible, informal and tailor-made approach to working with youth in silent and invisible disengagement from the rest of society has to take into consideration spatial, relational and organizational dimensions of intervention modalities and possibilities if the goal of youth reengagement is to be achieved.
KW - beyond-home intervention
KW - hikikomori
KW - in-home intervention
KW - informality
KW - social withdrawal
KW - youth
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84904155690&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/17525098.2014.921211
DO - 10.1080/17525098.2014.921211
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84904155690
SN - 1752-5098
VL - 7
SP - 161
EP - 174
JO - China Journal of Social Work
JF - China Journal of Social Work
IS - 2
ER -