A Social Capital Perspective on Social-Medical Collaboration in Community End-of-Life Care in Hong Kong

Abstract

Recent developments in Hong Kong end-of-life (EOL) care have shifted some caring work for dying people and their families to cross-disciplinary collaboration in community settings. Social-medical collaboration becomes especially important. This study aims to use social capital as an analytical lens to examine the processes and mechanisms of social-medical collaboration in EOL care and elucidate practice implications for engaging in the care of dying people and their families. Qualitative data were collected using in-depth interviews. Three major conceptual categories were generated through grounded theory methodology. They are (a) establishing trust through keeping clear and simple boundaries, (b) cultivating mutuality in the multi-disciplinary meeting, and (c) fostering social-medical collaboration in EOL care. Each new stage is based on the social capital accumulated in the previous one through the social interactions between professionals. Such theorization also provides insights into how to achieve effective social-medical collaboration in this context.