In Hong Kong, the knowledge of multiple family groups (MFGs) among social workers has been limited, in particular, in adapting MFG activities to a Chinese context. In this paper, we describe our experience of employing this group approach to assist Chinese parents who are taking care of children with special needs; state the challenges of implementing it and report the families' perception of helpful and unhelpful aspects of the MFG experience. In the perspective of the parents, two activities, namely preparing a joint meal and surrogate parenting have proven efficacious for parents to understand their child's strengths and explore alternate ways of parenting.
[Copyright of Journal of Social Work Practice: psychotherapeutic approaches in health, welfare and the community is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02650533.2012.706217]

OBJECTIVE. Medical professionalism has been widely discussed in western scholarly literature. However, since Hong Kong has a mixed Chinese-western culture, it remains uncertain whether Hong Kong health care professionals, medical students, and patients see medical professionalism in exactly the same way as westerners. The objective of the present study was to explore perceptions of medical professionalism in Hong Kong.
DESIGN. Individual semi-structured interviews.
SETTING. Medical faculty preceptors, residents, interns, nurses, and students from the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong. Subjects were recruited at an out-patient clinic of Queen Mary Hospital.
PARTICIPANTS. We interviewed 39 subjects, including six medical faculty preceptors, six hospital residents, four medical interns, eight nurses, eight out-patients, and seven medical students. The interviews were transcribed and coded. Grounded theory was employed for framing and analysing the interviews.
RESULTS. A total of 30 primary themes were identified and grouped under three secondary themes, ie 'Expectations of a professional doctor', 'Work values', and 'Patient care'. In general, the primary themes were consistent with recognised professional attributes in western bioethics, such as knowledge and skills, holistic care, and communication skills. A closer analysis suggested that traditional Chinese thought also played an important role in shaping the medical professionalism of Hong Kong. Challenges to be faced by Hong Kong doctors due to recent social changes were also identified.
CONCLUSIONS. Medical professionalism in Hong Kong is shaped by both western medical ethics and traditional Chinese thought. The values treasured by Hong Kong health care professionals as well as technological advance, and the city's proximity to Mainland China makes Hong Kong health care unique. It is important to maintain the present work attitudes and at the same time adapt to

This paper discusses the views of three Hong Kong social work practitioners on how they make sense of what they learned at university and how they reconstruct that social work knowledge through reflection on their practice. It suggests that unreflective and uncritical discretion results in social workers making assumptions or imposing their own beliefs, which inhibits their practice. Three issues that are commonly faced by fresh graduates are highlighted in the critical reflections of the three social work practitioners: (1) value conflict; (2) unawareness of the self; and (3) abuse of power in practice. In 2007, the competency-based approach is still the mainstream approach to social work education in Hong Kong, but as social work educators we should aim to help students to engage in a process of continuous professional reflection whereby they explore multiple ways of framing and understanding a practice situation and hence find alternative ways of knowing and acting in practice.
[Copyright of Social Work Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02615470701456558]