Search

Background and Objectives The construction of an Age-Friendly City (AFC) requires active contribution from relevant interest groups including older adults, nonprofit organizations, and policy-makers. However, given that relevant interest groups may have limited resources, knowledge, and skills, as well as unique contextual factors, they often require help from intermediary organizations—actors that aim to build interest groups’ capabilities. Our objectives were to examine the functions of universities, as an example of intermediary organizations, in facilitating the construction of an AFC, and identify critical factors that enable intermediary organizations to perform their functions. Research Design and Methods We conducted three focus groups and one individual interview with multiple interest groups including older adults and social workers from nonprofit organizations and local government involved in a 6-year citywide AFC project in Hong Kong. Participants were asked to share their views on the role of universities in relation to their own experiences and roles in the project. Data generated from the interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results Four themes pertinent to the functions of universities in facilitating development were identified: facilitating cross-sector collaborations, knowledge diffusion, interest-group building, and mediating divergent interests. We also found that neutrality and reputability are key characteristics for intermediary organizations to wield sufficient legitimacy to perform their functions efficiently. Discussion and Implications Findings underscore the important yet overlooked role of intermediary organizations in bridging and mediating different interest groups to facilitate AFC development. We advance gerontological scholarship by providing insights into the theoretical mechanisms and practice implications for intermediary organizations in fostering an AFC.

A rising trend is being observed in enhancing Inter-Professional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPECP) in health care settings. Empirical evidence on its effects, particularly in youth settings, remains limited. This study examined the moderating role of inter-professional learning in the relation between youth work practitioners’ self-efficacy in social work and their creative self-efficacy and innovative behaviour. A total of 227 youth work practitioners from sixteen district-based youth services in Hong Kong were invited to participate in a survey. The results of regression analyses indicate a positive association between practitioners’ sense of self-efficacy in social work and their creative self-efficacy and innovative behaviour. They also show a positive association between practitioners’ inter-professional learning experience and their creative self-efficacy and innovative behaviour. However, concerning the interaction effect between self-efficacy in social work and inter-professional learning, the results indicate that the positive relationship between self-efficacy in social work and creative self-efficacy and innovative behaviour was weaker for practitioners who had a higher level of inter-professional learning. The promotion of IPECP and the preparation of social workers to be collaboration-ready were deemed essential in fostering an effective multi-agency and multi-profession partnership, especially for seasoned practitioners who were more likely to possess a silo mentality.

The term golden opportunities to discuss with supervisees about social work values refers to the episodes of struggles and conflicts encountered by students in fieldwork. They are so-called golden opportunities to discuss social work values with students. Limited attention has been paid as to how to seize these golden opportunities. This study explores the causes of emotional disturbance and the methods applied by supervisors to discuss social work values with their students. In total, 22 Hong Kong students in Higher Diploma Social Work programmes at three higher education institutes were interviewed. Themes identified include ambivalent feelings, methods and expectations of students. An emotionally interactive approach which consists of 3Ps (‘perceived safe and trusting supervisory relationship’, ‘process of supportive supervision’ and ‘positive and accepting attitudes of supervisors’) is proposed.

Purpose: The main objective of this study was to provide a comprehensive overview of the latest studies on COVID-19-related social work issues. Method: This systematic review aimed to collect, review, and synthesize all COVID-19-related papers published in 43 major social work journals, a year after the first known case was reported. Results: The final sample ( n = 256) consisted of 85 research articles and 171 in other formats. All the studies involved a total of 46,195 research participants. The majority of papers (75.4%) could be accessed freely online. Service users including families, students, older adults, caregivers, refugees, patients, health care workers, etc. were either researched or discussed. Discussion: Gerontological social work was one of the fields that received ample attention. Papers published in the Journal of Gerontological Social Work yielded the highest number of citations. Academics and social workers came up with innovative ways of practicing and researching during the pandemic.

Evidence about the association between volunteering and the mental health of older adults during COVID-19 remains underexplored. This study investigated (1) patterns of volunteering among older adults in Hong Kong during COVID-19; (2) associations between volunteering and mental health of older adults during COVID-19; and (3) associations between key psychological resources (e.g., self-efficacy and self-esteem) and volunteering among older adults during COVID-19. This study applied a cross-sectional design with data collected from 128 older adults in June 2020, who were trained as volunteers in a volunteer program that began before COVID-19. The study found that older adults continued to actively contribute to their communities by engaging in volunteering during COVID-19. The specific type of volunteering activities was linked to few depressive and anxiety symptoms. Older adults with increased self-esteem prior to COVID-19 were more likely to participate in volunteering activities related to COVID-19. Our study suggested that encouraging older adults to volunteer during the pandemic is a key pathway to maintain mental health. Social workers are encouraged to engage older adults in volunteerism regularly to offset the risk of depression and anxiety symptoms in times of crisis.

Conducting online social work groups, as a substitute for traditional forms of groups, was uncommon in Hong Kong before the outbreak of COVID-19. Frontline social workers encountered several difficulties and challenges while trying to provide this alternative form of social work intervention. This article serves as a reflection on the use of online social work groups from social work practitioners’ point of view at this critical juncture.

An evaluation of the role played by the social work profession during the outbreak of COVID-19 is necessary. Although social workers have made efforts to address people’s needs during the pandemic, it is worth examining the role they have played in safeguarding health equality. Focusing on the case of Hong Kong, we found that the profession was generally ill-prepared for the outbreak, and in particular, for confronting the attendant social inequalities. We identified three possible reasons for these findings: 1) non-governmental organizations were caught off-guard by the outbreak, 2) there was no clearly articulated intervention agenda to inform practitioners of the roles they should play in such a large-scale crisis, and 3) having become more formalized and standardized, social work services may have become less flexible in responding to emerging community needs. We conclude this article by suggesting three directions that could allow the profession to better pursue its mission during large-scale crises.

This research aimed to explore life stress, available social support, and depression levels in mid- and older-aged individuals experiencing the bereavement of a spouse. We excluded subjects who were remarried, living with companions, divorced but not remarried, separated, or never married, resulting in a final sample of 1,231 subjects. Analyses indicated that a significant level of stress related to health, finances, and family relationships was associated with higher levels of life stress and depression. Individuals with family and friends who were less willing to listen or who cared less tended to suffer from more severe symptoms of depression.

This study aimed to contribute to an exploratory categorization of different adolescent drug rehabilitation service models in Hong Kong. In-depth interviews were conducted with local social workers working in the medical model setting, integrated model setting, and social model setting. There was a trend that hybrid models were used by the drug rehabilitation service providers and a shift to postmodernism was found in the current service settings.

This study aimed to examine depressive symptoms of community-dwelling older people amidst COVID-19 and explore how naturally occurring coping strategies were associated with depression. A mixed-method cross-sectional telephone survey was conducted with 375 older people aged 60 years and above between March and May 2020 in Hong Kong. Trained social workers interviewed participants and assessed depressive symptoms with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Attribute coding and thematic analysis were adopted for qualitative data analyses. Generalized linear models (GLM) were used to examine the effects of demographics, self-reported risk factors and coping strategies on PHQ-9 scores. Participants' average PHQ-9 score was 1.9 (

The future is undoubtedly unpredictable which is vividly proved by the 2020 pandemic. Educators primarily focused for the well-being of the students in this time of crisis, panic and ambivalence. In present milieu, social work practice teaching has been made online. This is high time which calls for the retrofitting of the previous discussions where the emphasis should now be laid upon a better quality of teaching, curriculum restructuring, and capacity building of clinical practice educators. Yet, there are multitudes of underlying predicaments, i.e. e-teaching versus e-learning, synchronous versus asynchronous modalities, and educator versus youtuber, which need to be analyzed and evaluated before stepping in and getting lost in the new era.

This study examined the moderating effect of youth–adult partnerships (YAPs) on the relationship between youth empowerment in the community and youth’s creative self-efficacy (CSE). A survey was administered to 2,653 youth recruited from youth service centers in Hong Kong, which measured youth empowerment in the community, perceived YAPs in youth services, and CSE. The results indicated positive associations between youth empowerment in the community and youth’s CSE and between YAPs and CSE. There was also an interaction effect between youth empowerment and YAPs on youth’s CSE, where the effect of youth empowerment was stronger for youth who experienced higher perceived levels of YAPs. This suggests an amplification effect of YAPs on the relationship between youth empowerment in the community and CSE. Overall, the present findings support a way for community-based youth services to empower youth and to facilitate creative developmental outcomes and initiatives among young people by enhancing YAPs.

Pop-up design helps steer city regeneration and community revival. With this belief, Hong Kong-based social creativity studio One Bite Social launched the urban ‘matching’ platform ‘Project House’. Using a tactical place-making approach, it pairs up vacant shops with local social groups facing spatial needs. The win–win results bring local exposure to pop-up vacant shops while providing marginalised community groups with adequate space for new social practices. Can tactical place-making become a tool to create space for place-based community development? What works, and does not work, at Project House, and why? How can Project House be applied to different contexts? By adopting a realist impact evaluation framework, this paper explores the potential of Project House, a first-of-its-kind tactical place-making initiative combining social work and architecture to create a new setting for a community.

Civic crowdfunding for research purposes has been an emerging trend in scientific fields over the past few years. This article presents findings from a mixed methods analysis of 152 social science research projects that campaigned for crowdfunding. A total of US$583,074 was raised through the support of 6,663 backers amongst the 150 successfully funded projects. This study offers specific lessons for social work researchers engaging in crowdfunding campaigns. The data show that projects supported by endorsers and initiated by faculties were able to solicit more backers and funds. Another key finding is that the campaigns that had videos for promotional purposes were the most successful, but video length does not affect backers’ consideration. The article presents the potential ethical challenges for social work researchers in this crowdfunding arena. In what may first appear to be a democratic and emancipatory space, decisions are actually made about what topics are worthy of financing by people who have access to the online platforms and the disposable income to back the project. Nevertheless, these platforms offer a route to research funding for academics, practitioners and service user groups in a context where funding from research councils and foundations is increasingly limited and competitive.

Over the past decade, there has been a resurgence of interest in education towards media literacy in light of the fast-growing industry of new media. The “new media” offers a “new” form of “news” t...

Parent-adolescent conflict seems to be common when adolescents negotiate power with their parents. Forum theatre (FT), an interactive and participatory theatre form, is recommended as a community-based intervention to assist Chinese parents in managing the challenges of parent-adolescent interaction. FT proposes that solutions to daily struggles can be reached through concerted efforts of the participants. This article documents the impact of FT on parents who took on the role of ‘spect-actor’. The spect-actor is an active spectator who acts on stage to test solutions to a problem. The results indicate that parents gained more awareness of their children’s needs, which helped them to relax their control over their children. FT is recommended as a means of parent education in schools.

Reflection of feelings is a hallmark strategy of non-directive child-centred play therapy that enhances children’s emotional awareness and equips them with emotionally expressive words. The...

This study examines service utilisation patterns and investigates the needs and barriers to service utilisation among users and non-users of home care services in Taiwan. 450 participants w...

This paper mainly explores how to enrich the social work practice with young migrant workers via discussion of using narrative approach as an action research tool to capture the life experiences of young migrant workers, and to inform social work practice. It begins with the importance of action research, action research in China, and how narrative approach could become one of the key tools of action research with young migrant workers in China. Then it further discusses the nature and application of narrative approach using the first author’s experience of conducting a research project with young migrant workers in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. Findings and limitation of the narrative approach to social work with young migrant workers are finally presented.

Film: Go Grandriders! (90 min)Directed by Tian-Hao HuaReleased: 2013 (USA)Language: Mandarin and Taiwanese, with English subtitlesA Taiwanese documentary Go Grandriders is introduced as a thought-p...

This study examines the correlations of adolescents’ self-esteem, loneliness and depression with their internet use behaviors with a sample of 665 adolescents from seven secondary schools in Hong Kong. The results suggest that frequent online gaming is more strongly correlated to internet addiction and such correlation is higher than other predictors of internet addiction in online behaviors including social interactions or viewing of pornographic materials. Male adolescents tend to spend more time on online gaming than female counterparts. In terms of the effect of internet addiction on adolescents’ psychological well-being, self-esteem is negatively correlated with internet addiction, whereas depression and loneliness are positively correlated with internet addiction. Comparatively, depression had stronger correlation with internet addiction than loneliness or self-esteem. A standardized definition and assessment tool for identifying internet addiction appears to be an unmet need. Findings from this study provide insights for social workers and teachers on designing preventive programs for adolescents susceptible to internet addiction, as well as emotional disturbance arising from internet addiction.

In a world overwhelmed with concerns over unequal gender treatment and prevailing patriarchal systems, Sweden’s efforts to promote gender equality has not gone unnoticed. According to the U.S. News...

This article presents a one-year ‘Emoto’ project for male carers. In this project, photography is used as an intervention tool to work with this underrepresented group. Photos taken by voluntary photographers according to various ‘Qing’ (primary emotion) themes were used as the prominent means of communication. These photos encouraged male carers using nonverbal media to assist the expression of untold thoughts and unrecognized feelings. Besides responding to the growing psychological hardship of male carers in the community, the project aimed at informing practitioners and the general public about male carers’ needs.

Social workers are divided on their enthusiasm for philosophical debates, either being a huge fan or a big questioner. As Grimwood asks at the beginning of the book, “Why should social workers thin...

Social work is not, and should not be, a practice of common sense. The author revisited a vast array of literature on practice wisdom in social work and parallel conceptions in cognate disciplines. For better or worse, the idea of practice wisdom has been revitalized in standing against the deprofessionalization of social work. However, its ambiguity in meaning has somehow overridden its reputation. Practice wisdom is intuitive, tacit, and spontaneous in nature. It is an embodied phronesis of experienced practitioners. The author argues that practice wisdom in social work is not only the wisdom of analytical experience, but it is also the wisdom or a quality characterized by courtesy, kindness, consideration, compassion, and benevolence. It is uniquely uncommonsensical and has to be cultivated through the intersubjective encounter between the practitioner and service user.

In a guanxi-driven acquaintanceship, the worker, the client, and the community are tied together more closely than they are in mutually agreed-upon service contracts. This paper re-examines the contemporary boundaries in the social work relationship, especially in Asian nations such as China, where ‘relationships’ are generally translated and perceived as ‘guanxi’. The indigenisation of social work must be managed with care when translating from West to East. Drawing from the experiences of community development projects in rural Hong Kong, this paper discusses how guanxi among social workers, clients and other stakeholders in Chinese communities might challenge the professionalism of social work and breach the boundaries of social work relationships.

This article presents the findings of a review of 40 social services administration textbooks published between 1965 and 2014 to examine their coverage of social work values and ethics and the preparation of administrators for practice in a value-based profession. The coverage of values and ethics in these texts varied considerably and close to one third paid little or no attention to the ethical precepts of the social work profession. Textbook authors and editors are advised to take a more proactive stance in encouraging social work administrators to reconsider the management of human services from a value-laden point of view.

Based on first-hand experiences in implementing a volunteer mentorship scheme, the authors suggest that the children and youth service centres provide a crucial platform for social workers to engage students with special educational needs (SENs), and it is of the utmost importance to reclaim advocacy for them in social work services. As for the past decade, inclusive education in Hong Kong has received more complaints than compliments regarding the necessary support that SEN students deserve. By adopting a whole-school approach, developmental guidance for these students has been confined mainly to the duties of teachers and teaching assistants in overcrowded classrooms. Without an adequate supply of professional training and in-house support, the practicality of including SEN students in mainstream schooling has been far from satisfactory. This paper supports a social work approach that facilitates the inclusion of SEN students in the community through embracing the divergence of individual characteristics.

Service administrators and social workers are increasingly adopting business terminology in practice, including such terms as “social impact”, “social capital”, “social investing”, “social accounting”, “social benefits”, and “social return on investment” (SROI). These concepts, especially SROI, must be examined for inconsistency with social work values. Clients must not be stigmatised, and their voices must be heard when this controversial measurement tool is used. A prudent mentality must accompany the application of business ideas to humanistic social care.

In light of the growing trend of developing practice doctoral degree programmes in social work, the author uses the first Doctor of Social Work (DSW) programme in Hong Kong, which is a unique programme in China, as a case study to examine the pedagogy and constraints of doctoral programmes in social work. The programme serves as an alternative to a typical PhD programme and is designed particularly for seasoned practitioners in the field who strive to achieve a balance between a research and practice orientation and between an academic and a pragmatic focus. This paper emphasises that, to stand out from the crowd, practice doctorates in Hong Kong should take part in practice-based research and publish in refereed journals.

Accompanying the diminishing voice of the client in cross-subsidized social work, the author makes an attempt to reveal the ambivalence and ambiguity of state-sponsored social work in Hong Kong. In light of the increase in quasi-welfare markets that promote an environment of competitive bidding on government subventions, this article addresses the contradictions between commercial and social work values after the commodification of welfare. Because frontline practitioners are becoming more reluctant to be involved in ‘typical’ social work interventions, reconsidering and recalculating costs are recommended under the pendulum of left and right ideologies in a postcolonial, neoliberal metropolis.

Welfare statism should not be a patent for the Western world. This article aims to grasp lessons learnt from two resource-abundant nations in Asia, that is Brunei Darussalam and Islamic Republic of Iran, regarding their ideologies of social policy formulation and welfare provision, in a forward-moving political and economic context. In the process of struggling over a non-Euro-centred typology of welfare state, calling for pluralism, civil society and democratic participation for the Islamic rentier welfare state with the history of absolute monarchy met heavy opposition from the conservative forces and groups with vested interests, even though in the post-revolutionary era.

May Chazan (a Canada Research Chair in Gender and Feminist Studies), Melissa Baldwin (the co-chair of an activist-research collective, Aging Activisms), and Pat Evans (the former co-chair of the Gr...

Social workers always strive for an intricate balance between the competitive demands of different discourses of accountability. However, the neoliberal welfare regime, which privileges the ideologies of free market choice and managerial control, has synchronized the different discourses into a neoliberal discourse of accountability. Using Hong Kong as an example, this article examines how this discourse is put into practice and how it demoralizes the social work profession. To resist this discourse, social workers may need to work reflexively with their service users in and outside their workplace.