Advocacy on self-help for patients with chronic illness: The Hong Kong experience

Abstract

While in Western countries, the development of the self-help movement is flourishing in the social service and healthcare scene, there is a lack of such parallel development in Hong Kong. This may be due to the different cultural orientations as well as the lack of deliberate effort on the part of the government and related professionals. The present establishment and service delivery system of the healthcare institutions in Hong Kong has few provisions to cater to the social adjustment and quality of life for chronic patients. Although Chinese families and kinship networks are invaluable assets in providing support to patients and caregivers, the cultural stigmatization against illness and the strong sense of paternalistic professional domination in the present medical system are obstacles to the development of self-help among patients in Hong Kong. Witnessing the gross hardship and neglect of chronic patients, the authors took on an action research project to advocate for government support to self-help groups and policy changes on the scope and models of rehabilitation services to chronic patients. Based on the action research project and the organizing experiences in advocacy for government recognition and provisions for their needs, this paper attempts to describe the social dimensions of coping with illness and the potentiality and benefits of the development of the self-help movement in the Chinese culture of Hong Kong.