Since 2016, the FMPC has collaborated with the Department of Social Work and Social Administration at HKU to offer placement for their Master of Social Work students every academic year. The students provide free counselling services to our Ap Lei Chau General Outpatient Clinic patients in need (eg. with emotional distress or social problems). This is a pioneer medical-social integrative service with the dual aims of providing whole-person care to our patients and at the same time, fostering the development of a new generation of social workers within a primary care setting. We hold monthly case conferences to facilitate communication amongst doctors, social work tutors and social work students during their period of placement to enrich their training experience. Over the years, this Program has promoted inter-professional understanding and communication between our resident doctors and social workers. The Program has also been well received by our patients. We believe this is a good model for medical-social integrative care, as well as inter-professional collaborative learning, which can be adopted in the wider primary care context across Hong Kong.
