Establishing housing social work service in the public and private housing estates of Hong Kong

Abstract

Housing is one of the important social institutions in modern society. it is not simply perceived as a shelter or place of accommodation, it also signifies a lot of meanings and implications to human beings. Residents living in public and private housings do have various needs and encounter different problems which cannot wholly be satisfied and resolved by housing management professionals. Service gaps of individuals or groups with special needs, thus, exist in the housing settings. Social work as a helping profession with practice wisdom on professional joint working has already been delivering their services in different host settings. One may query whether social workers are capable to engage themselves in the housing setting This study intends to explore the feasibility of interprofessional collaboration between social work and housing management professions as well as the possibility that housing social work service can be developed in the public/private housings.

Through conducting qualitative individual interviews and focus groups with 35 social work and housing management participants as well as engaging 266 respondents of social work and housing management in the quantitative on-line survey, findings from the study clearly demonstrated the feasibility on interprofessional collaboration between social work and housing management professions and both social work and housing management professions supported the proposal of establishing housing social work service to be developed in the public/private housing estates. In addition, professional training needs in social work and housing management profession are identified and ways to increase competent manpower for future interprofessional collaboration practice are provided. A detailed and concrete recommendation for establishing housing social work service in the public /private housing estate in Hong Kong is outlined with proposal on interprofessional education on social work training institutes of Hong Kong in the ending chapter.