Highlights of the Year 2019-20

• Medical social services aim to provide timely psycho-social intervention and/or tangible assistance to patients and their family members/relatives to help them cope with or solve problems arising from illness, trauma or disability. As a member of the clinical team, each medical social worker (MSW) plays an important role in linking up the medical and social services to facilitate patients’ rehabilitation and reintegration into the community. MSWs collaborate closely with medical and allied health professionals through case conferences, meetings, ward rounds and social reports, etc. in formulating and implementing treatment/discharge/rehabilitation plans for patients.
• The Medical Social Services Units (MSSUs) managed by SWD can be broadly classified into general and psychiatric settings. MSWs in the general setting are stationed at public hospitals and some specialist out-patient clinics of the Hospital Authority (HA), and at child assessment centres and the integrated treatment centre of the DH, while those in the psychiatric setting are stationed at psychiatric hospitals and out-patient clinics of the HA.
• As at 31 March 2020, SWD had an establishment of 471 MSWs serving in 36 MSSUs, including the new MSSU at Tseung Kwan O Hospital Psychiatric Clinic which commenced operation in January 2020. In 2019-20, MSWs served around 197 700 cases.