Liu Lina (left) organizes a game for people with disabilities at the Futian community center in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, on May 13, observed as the Day of Helping the Disabled in China (COURTESY OF LIU LINA)

When Li Si was a child, his role model was Zhang Haidi, the writer who has been called China's Helen Keller for overcoming childhood paraplegia to become an activist for the rights of people with disabilities. One of his primary school books carried Zhang's photograph and to him, she symbolized the qualities of cherishing life and striving for self-improvement.

After he grew up, Li became a social worker, working to support people with disabilities in Shenzhen, a major city in Guangdong Province. He started his career in social services in 2008, the same year in which Zhang became president of the China Disabled Persons' Federation (CDPF). The eight years since have been a golden period for the cause of people with disabilities in China, witnessing the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games, the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Para Games, and a pavilion for people with

disabilities at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, the first of its kind at a world fair.

Inspired by Zhang, numerous people are choosing to help people with disabilities by becoming social workers.

According to the Australian Association of Social Workers, social work as a profession facilitates social change and development, social cohesion and the empowerment and liberation of people. Principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversity are central to social work.

"A social work professional's main tasks may include a number of services such as case management—linking clients with agencies and programs that will meet their psychosocial needs, investigating and counseling," Li said. "Every job is led by the aim of achieving optimum psychosocial functioning."

Disability services

Shenzhen was among the first cities in China to provide public social services. On October 25, 2007, the Shenzhen Government released guidelines for organizing social workers, which laid the policy foundation for the city's social work sector.

The work of social service organizations is supported by the local federation for people with disabilities and the civil affairs authority. Shenzhen signed contracts with its first batch of social workers in August 2007, and started contracting social worker services in bulk in March 2008. In 2009, social service organizations began investigating the demand for social services specifically for people with disabilities and analyzing their feasibility. Four years later, a service program finally got underway.

Li said Shenzhen's social work sector developed so quickly because the city realized the necessity of providing social services to enable people with disabilities. "We need to be aware that people with disabilities have multiple needs, not just limited to food and clothing," he said.

Statistics from the Shenzhen Association of Social Work show that the city, starting from scratch less than a decade ago, currently has 22 social service organizations and 230 social workers focused on people with disabilities.

Liu Lina is a social worker who assists patients with mental problems. In 2012, she joined Shenzhen Pengxing Social Service Institution, the first social service organization on the Chinese mainland, which provided Shenzhen's initial batch of professional social workers in 2007. In 2013, Pengxing established a resource center for patients with mental problems and their families, also the first of its kind on the mainland.

Her motivation for taking the job was her belief that social work is not only a profession dedicated to helping others but also provides abundant space for the workers' own personal development. "In my eyes, the spirit of social work is to make a difference to life," Liu said. "And the difference takes place in both the people I serve and me." Liu feels people with mental problems require social service physically and psychologically. Besides help with their daily needs, they need emotional support. She recalled the time when one of her patients, a 20-year-old, locked herself up in her room and refused to open the door.

"I was called by her mother, and we stayed [there] the whole afternoon," Liu described the incident. "With patience and cajoling, we got her to open the door eventually. What touched me most was that when this crisis happened, she and her mother chose to trust a social worker."

Liu's colleague, Hu Shuyan, said social work calls for a certain attitude as well as particular skills. As the role primarily involves trying to influence others, social workers need to convey positive messages to people with mental illnesses in order to help them recover.

Volunteers walk hand in hand with people with mental disabilities during an event in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, on May 14(XINHUA)

Future development

Hou Xiansheng, a social worker with the Nanshan Disabled Persons' Federation, agreed with Hu, adding that instead of trying to solve problems for people with disabilities, social workers should "help them to help themselves."

Initially, social workers in Shenzhen were required to work for institutions such as hospitals, schools, rehabilitation centers or disabled persons' federations. Later, a more flexible position—the program social workers—came into being.

Nowadays, social service involves both types of position, and social workers deliver services in line with the physical, mental, and social needs of people with disabilities.

"The trend is changing from offering comprehensive services to offering differentiated services in specific projects or programs. In effect, it has already happened. We already have a team made up of [institutional] social workers and program social workers," Li said. "We also hope Zhang Haidi can contribute more to promoting exchanges with institutions abroad, so we can adopt advanced ideas and techniques in developing our cause for people with disabilities."

During an interview with Sznews.com, Yi Songguo, a professor of social work at Shenzhen University, said as society progresses, social service organizations will take on part of the government's functions. The future for such organizations lies in developing specializations and improving their professionalism.

Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar

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