Page 142 - HA Convention 2015

Symposiums

S7.3 Rehabilitation in Community 13:15 Convention Hall B

Tuesday, 19 May How Healthcare Can Work with Social Work for the Elderly?
Chui EWT
Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Social workers engage in inter-disciplinary collaboration with various professionals in the healthcare sector, including
doctors, nurses and different types of therapists, in their service delivery for various types of clients. This actualises the merit
of complementarity of roles and functions, and also manifests the “supportive” function of social work for other social policy
domains.

There can be different manifestations of such inter-disciplinary or inter-professional collaboration. There are four domains
of inter-professional collaboration, namely (1) inter-personal, (2) inter-professional, (3) inter-agency, and (4) inter-disciplinary;
as well as four forms of collaborative relationships, which are (1) informal networking, (2) formal networking, (3) inter-agency
collaboration, and (4) multi-disciplinary teamwork (Wittington, 2003; Crawford 2012).

Social workers working in centre-based community support services like District Elderly Community Centre (DECC),
Neighbourhood Elderly Centre (NEC) and Social Centre for Elderly (SC) play various roles including information giving
and education, such as health talks; early identification and referral to healthcare professionals. In home and community
care services (including Enhanced Home and Community Care (EHCCS), day-care centres (DC)), social workers provide
supportive services to community-living older people and elderly patients discharged from hospitals e.g. the Integrated
Discharge Support Program (IDSP), which serves to render seamless services for older people. In residential settings
like Residential Care Home for the Elderly (RCHE), social workers work collaboratively with nurses and other therapists in
meeting the personal and care needs of frail older people.

Social workers trained with “gerontological imagination” and “gerontological competence” would be better placed to provide
person-centred care for older people, especially the current cohort of seniors amongst whom low literacy and sense of
disempowerment are still prevalent. Through collaboration between healthcare professionals and social workers, knowledge
exchange as well as sharing of such imagination and competence could be achieved for betterment of senior’s welfare.

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