Family-centered care in adults’ mental health: Challenges in clinical social work practice

This article presents findings from an exploratory study to examine mental health social workers’ perspectives on factors that impede the implementation of family-centered care to adult mental health practice in Hong Kong. Seven mental health social workers were interviewed. The analysis identified a paradigm shift from a biomedical to a family-centered and strengths-based perspective; a paradigm shift from risk control to proactive case management, and a paradigm shift from management accountability to professional empowerment as affecting the frontline practitioners in applying a family-centered approach to mental health care. Recommendations for clinical social work practice at individual, organizational, and policy levels are outlined.