L: Hello Ceci! I still have vivid memories of working with you in the CRN centres. Why did you choose to work with The Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation?
C: I had the privilege of meeting Sir Harry FANG Sin-yang, the Founder of The Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation, also known as the “Father of Rehabilitation”. We both recognised that it’s very important to include people with disabilities and chronic illnesses in the government policy agenda. Also, understanding of people with chronic illnesses was rather shallow in society back then. We lobbied for more resources from the government and the Hong Kong Jockey Club to begin to provide community rehabilitation services. Eventually, Sir Harry FANG convinced the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust to approve a grant of HK$24 million for the first two years of operation. That’s how the CRN started.
The Society believes in the strength and self-healing capacity of patients so that they can live a better life, and also share their love and compassion for other people. Adopting the “helper therapy principle”, CRN builds a support and mutual help network of chronic patients, caregivers, social workers, health care professionals, and community volunteers. Likewise, the integrative body-mind-spirit intervention connects persons with similar experiences into a strong community, in which they can transform their experiences into new meaning and resources for collective growth.
L: I vividly remember that. Can you describe how the integrative body-mind-spirit approach helps our service users in the CRN?
C: We set up a Community Rehabilitation Network (CRN) in which chronic patients, care-givers and people in similar situations can help one another. The concept behind the integrative body-mind-spirit approach and CRN come into play when patients learn to accept their illness and the ups and downs in the journey. Through collective mutual support with persons having similar experiences, they realise that they are not alone.
I clearly remember that you adopted the I-BMS intervention and ran classes and organised groups in our CRN Wang Tau Hom centre, where you taught our service users about diet, communication, emotion management, qigong, accupressure-point massage, and so forth. That helped patients learn to take care of their own health. Later, we published manuals and produced documentaries of patient stories through TV programmes.
L: And do you remember we produced a series of videos of one-second techniques on CRN’s e2Care platform, which helped people master and practise the easy to learn health techniques. For instance, arm swinging exercises help improve blood circulation and produce happy hormones to make people feel good and reinforce a positive mood cycle.
C: The development of the I-BMS model and community rehabilitation service has become mature after all these years and serves as a foundation for academic research for the industry and academia. You and I also published numerous papers in academic journals on the I-BMS model, including a book on the model published by Oxford University Press. In fact, many case studies in the book came from the Society‘s cases and stories.
L: How has your experience working with the Society inspired you? Were there any unforgettable events?
C: One person who really impressed me was the Chairperson of the Society, Mr Benny CHEUNG Wai-leung. He was a fire officer in his younger days but had to undergo an amputation after getting seriously injured in a rescue. While undergoing rehabilitation treatment in the Society, Sir Harry FANG offered encouragement and support to him. Subsequently, Benny won four gold medals in fencing for Hong Kong at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games: in the individual foil, team foil, individual epée and team epée. After he recovered, he worked as a senior staff in the Fire Service Department, where he taught marching to firefighters. He once mentioned to me that prostheses were made of sturdier materials in the old days and recalled that his wound bled whenever his prosthesis rubbed against his skin, causing friction. But he would grit his teeth and continue marching. His perseverance was really impressive.
