Document Type

Journal Article

Department/Unit

School of Chinese Medicine

Title

Social work at the Chinese medicine system in Hong Kong

Language

English

Abstract

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. © 2008 by The Haworth Press. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Chinese medicine, Hong Kong, Interdisciplinary collaboration, Medical social service, Social work

Publication Date

2008

Source Publication Title

Social Work in Health Care

Volume

46

Issue

4

Start Page

39

End Page

55

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

DOI

10.1300/J010v46n04_03

Link to Publisher's Edition

http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J010v46n04_03

ISSN (print)

00981389

ISSN (electronic)

1541034X

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