The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and the School of Public Health of The University of Hong Kong jointly organized the FAMILY: Community Wisdom Forum, with the theme “Supporting and strengthening families”, with the Family Council and Social Welfare Department as the co-organizers and many social service agencies as the collaborating organizations.
The forum was successfully held on 11 April at the Christian Family Service Centre in Kwun Tong. The venue was packed with more than 300 participants from the fields of social service, health, education and government departments, and met with enthusiastic response from residents. We were honoured to have the Secretary for Labour and Welfare Mr. Matthew Cheung Kin Chung, Steward of The Hong Kong Jockey Club Mr. Anthony Chow Wing Kin, Chairman of the Council of The University of Hong Kong Dr. Leong Che Hung, Chairman of the Family Council Professor Daniel Shek Tan Lei and Chairman of Kwun Tong District Council Dr. Bunny Chan Chung Bun to be our guests of honour.
Mr. Chow, said at the welcome speech at the forum, “The response of the FAMILY Project is encouraging, since its implementation, the number of beneficiaries reached 240,000 in 18 districts.” FAMILY Project Principal Investigator Professor Lam Tai Hing said, “Family health is a holistic concept, covering physical and psychosocial health, and the two elements are complementary.”
The forum content was comprehensive and diversified, and included thematic speeches, panel discussion and group discussions, offering participants opportunities to exchange opinions and ideas.
The insightful findings of the group discussions are summarized as follows: Many group members felt that health encompasses of physical, psychological, social, mental and spiritual health. There is also a positive correlation between physical activity and diet. Some group members believed that when one can apply positive psychology on healthy diet and physical health, it can also improve one’s mental health at the same time. Some also mentioned that Hong Kong people, regardless of age, tend to not do exercises themselves or with their friends and families due to a lack of time. Both children and adults face intense stress in their daily lives, and many group members believed the condition of Hong Kong people’s mental health are deteriorating. Thus, it was suggested that there be an increase of the presence of positive psychology in families as it is very important that holistic family health to include both physical and psychosocial health.
Group members agreed with the usage of public health approach in the design, planning and evaluation of family programmes. Many of the social service professionals were enthusiastic towards using the public health approach to evaluate programmes as they believed it can raise their service standard. Many voiced the importance of embracing cross-sector collaboration so as to accumulate resources and encourage wider collaboration and partnership with partners from different disciplines. Hence, the designed programmes should be community-based and evidence-based, and have varieties for the entire family to select and enjoy together. In addition, the programmes should be related to physical exercises and healthy diets. The physical activities should be innovative, easy to do, do not require too much time, achievable, sustainable, with fun, and allow rooms for improvement. Positive psychology also plays an important role, it is vital to include activities which are joyful for all and can bring about positive experiences. The discussions also collated views which stated that the ideal programmes should involve the participation of the entire family. Many also hoped to reach out to the underprivileged groups.
Community-based participatory projects had been held previously under the FAMILY Project in collaboration with various social service organizations. Representatives of some of the participated organizations also shared their pragmatic experiences in the wisdom sharing session. In sum, the forum provided a valuable platform to network participants and to exchange views on family agenda and strategies, and hence brought forth the concepts of evidence-based and evidence-generating family services and public health approach to the community.
Secretary for Labour and Welfare Mr. Matthew Cheung Kin Chung agrees that the FAMILY Project has provided a series of feasible and practical suggestions and proposals to strengthen family support.
Steward of The Hong Kong Jockey Club Mr. Anthony Chow Wing Kin expressed that the response of the FAMILY Project is encouraging, the number of beneficiaries reached 240,000 since its implementation.
Chairman of the Council of The University of Hong Kong Dr. Leong Che Hung gave a welcome speech at the wisdom forum.
Chairman of the Family Council Professor Daniel Shek Tan Lei delivered an invited speech titled “Creating and supporting a pro-family environment”.
FAMILY Project Principal Investigator Professor Lam Tai Hing gave a keynote speech titled “A forward-looking dialogue on family interventions and practices in Hong Kong”.
Experts and local leaders provided insightful comments during the panel discussion.
Group photo.
The event was exceedingly well attended by over 300 participants.