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Social workers to join disaster relief efforts
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A team of social workers with counseling skills will be set up in Shanghai to provide specialist help to disaster victims, the civil affairs authority said yesterday.
The team will have about 50 members, who will receive training from overseas experts to equip them with the necessary skills, the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau said.
Team members must know how to help victims restore their confidence and reconnect with society, said bureau official Liu Weiquan.
“As well as being helped to find their families, be provided with food, accommodation and medical treatment, disaster victims need to be reconnected with society,” Liu said.
“They also have to have trust in other people and regain confidence for their futures after suffering a trauma and being moved to a new place,” he said.
They must understand these concepts, he said.
The team members will deliver medical and psychological support to disaster victims, while also providing them with support and encouragement.
The team will be sent to disaster areas to provide emergency help, Liu said.
Some members of the annual session of the CPPCC suggested that social workers be included in China’s disaster relief system, he said.
After disasters like the Wenchuan and Ludian earthquakes, social workers helped many victims, but there was no structure for their work, officials said.
Shanghai social workers can apply to be members of the new team, and those with the right experience will be interviewed, the bureau said.
Yesterday was World Social Work Day, an event initiated by the International Federation of Social Workers.
The concept of social work has existed in Shanghai since the 1990s, when courses were launched at universities, and jobs were created within the city’s civil affairs, education and health fields.
A social work training center opened in 2000, and the city now has 7,384 certified professionals. But the bureau said there remains a lack of professionals in the sector, and that it lacks status and financial recognition.
Local authorities are considering providing more financial and policy support for social workers, it said.
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