Family Doctors and Social Workers Collaboration in Primary Healthcare in Hong Kong Part 1 - Emerging Stakeholders’ Perspectives

Background: As Hong Kong advances its primary healthcare reform through initiatives like the establishment of District Health Centres (DHCs), the collaboration between family doctors and social workers is increasingly seen as a path to deliver more comprehensive and person-centered care to older people. However, evidence has shown that the interaction between the two professionals had experienced problematic dynamic for integrated care.

 

This study explores stakeholder perspectives—including those of medical doctors, social workers, patient organisation and system-level actors—on the evolving nature of medical-social work collaboration in primary care settings. Of note, this research forms part of a PhD study with the University of Birmingham.

 

Method: This abstract is to produce early evidence about the key stakeholders’ perspectives on family doctor-social worker collaboration in primary care to inform policy for future development. Main research questions include 1) meanings and nature of medical-social work collaboration and 2) perceived facilitators and barriers of the collaboration.

 

12 individuals with roles to influence in current policy landscapes, are knowledgeable about and interested in medical-social work collaboration in primary care, and/or affected by the current development in primary healthcare were invited to attend a 45-60 minutes semi-structured interview, following an interview guide but flexibly adapted with the flow of the conversation. To make sure voice of people of lived experience is included, member from patient organization is included in the stakeholder interview.

 

Results: Themes emerging from the stakeholders include (1) Medical-social work collaboration is increasingly seen not as parallel practice but as complementary to the limitations of each professional to support the health and care needs of individuals. (2) Health and social care collaboration is more than service delivery, it is a shared platform to understanding and responding to the full spectrum of individuals’ needs. A broader understanding of health that underpinned by social determinants provided better alignment between the health and social work sectors working collaboratively to address health and care needs of individuals. (3) Key perceived barriers include role ambiguity and cross-discipline between professions lead to missed opportunities for collaboration (4) Structural support is essential to overcome barriers —including shared protocols, interoperable digital systems and joint training will foster inter-professional synergy and build trust across sectors.

 

Implications: This research elicited the stakeholders’ perspectives on what works and what are the challenges between the collaboration between family doctors and social workers for delivering person-centered care in primary care setting. By embedding ‘medical doctor-social work’ collaborative model into the broader healthcare strategies will offer insights for policymakers and healthcare leaders seeking to strengthen Hong Kong’s primary care system to better respond to the complex and evolving needs of its ageing population.

 

The findings have wider implications to implementation on integrated care in aspects of broader understanding of health and meaning of collaboration between health and social sectors. The themes identifying from stakeholders’ interviews will inform in-depth case study work with the three DHCs established as part of the health reforms in Hong Kong, composing social workers, family doctors and older people using DHCs.