Around 2,500 social workers are deployed to various units of the Social Welfare Department (SWD) to provide quality welfare services for members of the public. Four social workers of the SWD have recently been commended for their outstanding performance and professionalism in an election organised by the Hong Kong Social Workers Association in 2024-25. The election aimed to recognise the social workers and students of social work sector who have served Hong Kong and to share their touching stories. SWD’s social workers Mr Ivan Lau Yan-chi, Ms Mandy Yim Wai-man and Mr Benson Lo Shun-pan were presented with the “Heartwarming Social Workers Awards”, while another SWD’s social worker Ms Emily Tsoi Mei-yip was given the Merit Award. The recognition of their efforts is a great encouragement to SWD.

Mr Ivan Lau was the gold medalist in the Boccia BC4 Pairs event of the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games. Having suffered from spinal muscular atrophy since a young age, Mr Lau crossed his path with many devoted and caring social workers along his growth journey, which made him aspire to be a social worker. Having joined the Social Work Officer grade of the SWD in 2009, Mr Lau conducted frequent visits to residential care homes, where he had to explain the purpose of his visits time and again because he was often mistaken as a resident of the care homes. Despite this, he won the trust of his clients through communication in a professional manner. Mr Lau once handled a case of an elderly man who was diagnosed with cancer and considered it a waste of money to receive medical treatment at his age. At first, he planned to give up on treatment, but Mr Lau kept encouraging the elderly man through his own experiences of overcoming adversities and successfully convinced him to appoint Mr Lau to apply for subsidies on his behalf, so as to settle part of his medical expenses and receive medical treatment. Mr Lau is delighted that the service users are encouraged by his personal experiences and believes that with faith and determination, we can find our own positions no matter what difficulties we encounter.

Having served in the social welfare sector for seventeen years, Ms Mandy Yim is now working in a Family and Child Protective Services Unit of SWD, and is responsible for assessing and handling suspected cases involving domestic violence and child abuse. As a mother, Ms Yim cannot help feeling sad whenever she comes across cases involving children suffering from physical maltreatment. However, she always reminds herself of the professional role of a social worker in maintaining objectivity at work and understanding the views and needs of children from their perspectives. According to Ms Yim’s observations, some child abuse cases stem from overprotective parents who fail to express their love for their children properly. One of the cases Ms Yim handled involved a father who forced his daughter with suspected parasitic infection in her hair to use strong medicated shampoo, which caused her to experience low self-esteem due to scalp problems and hair loss. Ms Yim accompanied the girl to medical consultations during which the misconceptions of the father were corrected, through the doctors and eventually mended the relationship between the father and his daughter was mended. Ms Yim hoped that she could help more people in need with her experience in social services, and provide more professional services for the community through self-enhancement.

Mr Benson Lo has been working in the social welfare sector for more than twenty years. Serving in various SWD units with great commitment, he has been upholding the belief of walking side by side with service users, and found it most unforgettable to have handled the cases involving crisis intervention. He recalled a student suicide case in his service district on a Sunday some years ago. No sooner had he noted the incident than he rushed to the scene to provide support for the family concerned. By keeping the family members company and showing care for them, he made every effort to help the family recover from the tragedy. This allowed him to experience the warmth and significance of social work services. To him, every case or every experience at work is more than just a case reference number or a task. It is an experience that touches people's hearts.

Ms Emily Tsoi has been working at the frontline throughout her thirteen years of service at SWD. She still remembers the day when she handled a request for assistance at an Integrated Family Service Centre soon after assuming her post. Ms Tsoi received a call from a mother, who claimed to be sitting in a dangerous position on the rooftop and requested care services for her two daughters after her passing away. While it was the first time Ms Tsoi handled an attempted suicide case, she tried her best to stay calm, alerting her colleagues by raising her voice over the phone and at the same time jotting down the location of the help-seeker for her colleagues to make a report to the Police. Through her sincere conversations with the mother, Ms Tsoi managed to gain time for the rescuers to conduct rescue operation, so that the mother and her family could be saved eventually.