Interconnected All Along – Collaborative Action as the Core of Hong Fook

Presenters

Hung-Tat (Ted) Lo (he/him), FRCPC, Clinical Director, Asian Community Psychiatric Clinic

Raymond C.Y.Chung (he/him), MSW

Kenneth Fung (he/him), MD FRCPC MSc DFAPA DFCPA, Clinical Director, Asian Initiative in Mental Health, Toronto Western Hospital; Professor and Director of Global Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto

Kennes Lin (she/her), MSW, Director, Clinical Services and Community Education, Hong Fook Mental Health association

Abstract

A dialogue on the journey of HFMHA over the past 45 years: from a small group of “concerned’ newly immigrated professionals to a multi-services/multi-lingual organization in promoting mental wellbeing in the Asian communities (Cambodian, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese). Through a story-telling dialogue between two of our three founders: Raymond Chung (retired social worker), and Dr. Ted Lo (psychiatrist), along with Dr. Kenneth Fung (psychiatrist) and Kennes Lin (social worker), both actively involved with the recent developments of Hong Fook, this session will share some successful and not so successful experience we had, and the lessons we learned leading to an appreciation of collaboration as a core philosophy as well as a useful tool in our developments. Working with the dynamic socioeconomic and political environment locally and globally, this session moves through various examples of collaboration with the ethnic and larger community, mental health and other social services, hospitals, government, academia, philanthropy, media, and the arts. Participants are encouraged to also share their experiences so we can all learn from this important concept of collaboration in our practice in the mental health field.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Gain awareness of Hong Fook examples of collaborative practice through the intersections of community organizations, government, academia, hospitals, philanthropy, media, arts and culture.
2. Understand the dynamic ways Hong Fook recognizes and strives to address the multiple social factors impacting on its development as an ethno-specific community mental health service.
3. Participate and learn from the in-session dialogue on the value of collaboration in all of our practice

References

Lo. H, Chung, R. (2002.) The Hong Fook Experience: Working with Ethnocultural Communities in Toronto 1982-2002. Transcultural Psychiatry, 42, 457-477.