Reporter Ken Kuma

現代醫學的發展需要高水準醫術和精密科技的支援，更離不開深厚的人文關懷。2024年9月，國家衛生健康委、國家疾控局等部門聯合發佈《醫學人文關懷提升行動方案(2024-2027年)》，提出要充分發揮醫務社工和志願者在醫患和諧中的橋樑和紐帶作用。

Medical social work refers to the professional activities in the field of health care in which social workers use social work values and professional methods to help patients and their families prevent, alleviate and solve emotional, psychological and social problems caused by diseases, improve medical outcomes and promote public health.

At present, there are 130 medical and health institutions in Beijing that carry out medical social work. Medical and health institutions in many places across the country are also piloting the promotion of humanistic care for medical social workers and volunteers. So, how do medical social workers play a unique role in specific medical scenarios? This edition will launch a series of reports on "Retirement Record, Approaching Medical Social Workers", so stay tuned.

——Editor

Mo Zhigen (not his real name) was a little panicked.

From the prairie to Beijing, he carried the green car for 8 hours; He also has an intellectually disabled mother, a sick sister, and a 0-year-old little sister.

But Mo Rigen, the eldest brother, is only 8000 years old, after all, it is the first time to come to a big city like Beijing. The farthest he had ever gone to Qili was to participate in the Naadam Singing Competition. By the way, in that game, he won a bonus of 0 yuan. Coupled with the subsistence allowance, Mo Rigen feels that it is not difficult to support a family.

可現在，站在北京兒童醫院——中國最繁忙的醫院之一——的急診大廳，莫日根實在不知道下一步該做什麼了。人太多了，他們到時，適逢冬季流感高發季，北京兒童醫院連續幾天門診量都超萬人次。

Surrounded by a bustling crowd, Mo Rigen was a little panicked.

Fortunately, he met Hu Jiahui.

Out-of-town families are the focus

Hu Jiahui's work object, or the content of her work, is the family of children like Mo Rigen.

"I just graduated last year, majoring in social work with both my bachelor's and master's degrees, and I chose the direction of medical social work when I was in graduate school." One morning about 3 months after the incident, the reporter interviewed Hu Jiahui in the office of the Medical Social Work Department of Beijing Children's Hospital, and she mentioned her major when she said, "Medical social workers require a certain professional background, and the requirements for practical skills are high and challenging, and I really want to try." ”

Although the working hours are not long, Hu Jiahui is highly motivated, visiting different wards every day to learn about the relevant information of various departments, and to find and explore the needy families with potential needs in the hospital.

"The difficulties are many. Doctors focus on the child's health, while MSWs focus on non-medical services, focusing on the psychological and social difficulties faced by the child and his family. Hu Jiahui said.

Since Beijing Children's Hospital is also a national children's medical center, the proportion of non-local families seeking medical treatment is relatively high. "They will have all kinds of discomfort and they will not be clear about the situation in the hospital. In such cases, the intervention of a medical social worker can help them ease the discomfort of admission to the hospital and allow them to enter the medical process more smoothly. Hu Jiahui said that in addition, medical social workers have also mastered plans and measures in terms of transportation and accommodation to cope with various situations.

There are three ways to discover the channels for service recipients, Hu Jiahui said.

First, medical social workers take the initiative to visit the ward every day, and sometimes make appointments with doctors in advance to go to the ward to understand their difficulties in the process of contact with family members.

The second is the cooperation of the whole hospital to help docking. Beijing Children's Hospital has a very high level of awareness and recognition of medical social workers, and also understands the work effect and process of medical social workers.

The third way is to expand the awareness of the patient's family by sharing information about the work of medical social workers.

Hu Jiahui's encounter with Mo Rigen is the result of the joint play of these methods.

小小堅強男子漢

At the beginning, Hu Jiahui was visiting the emergency ward, explaining to the family members the filing of medical treatment in other places, so that they could use one-stop reimbursement.

At this time, a family member in the ward saw that the dazed Mo Rigen was wandering, so he asked him to go to Hu Jiahui for help. Morrigan stepped forward.

"Auntie, can you help me?" Hearing this, Hu Jiahui turned around and saw a child with his head on her shoulder, so she asked, "What's wrong with you?" ”

Mo Rigen's expression was very organized, and Hu Jiahui quickly figured it out: this is a family in desperate need of help.

"Their family comes from a remote pastoral area in Inner Mongolia, and my mother does not speak Chinese, so she has some intellectual disabilities, although it is not serious, but her reaction is slow, and my father is bedridden all year round." Hu Jiahui said that the little boy was completely in charge of the family's affairs. Previously, his eldest sister had been suffering from fever and convulsions, which could not be treated by the local hospital, and his father was unable to take care of his younger sister, so he took his mother and two younger sisters, who did not understand the language, to Beijing by train.

When Hu Jiahui learned about the situation, Hu Jiahui found that Mo Rigen also brought a small cart similar to an outdoor camper. The car was loaded with rice, noodles, oil, mutton, fried rice, and a rice cooker – they planned to take care of their own food and drink the whole time. So, Hu Jiahui investigated their family's economic situation: there is a subsistence allowance, and the basic life can be guaranteed; cattle and sheep are raised, mainly cared for by Mozhigen; Then there is the prize money from the competition in Mozhgen.

"This is a strong and sensible man." Hu Jiahui said, "At that time, I felt that even if I put aside my profession, they were the people I wanted to help. Moreover, as a medical social worker, I hope to solve some difficulties for my child and his family. ”

Accommodation was difficult

After a preliminary understanding of the situation, Hu Jiahui immediately applied to the emergency doctor. According to the doctor's diagnosis and judgment of the condition, Mo Rigen's eldest sister was hospitalized first. Hu Jiahui led their family of four to go through the filing of medical treatment in other places, and then went to complete the hospitalization procedures, and then went to the ward.

In the process of going through the procedures, Hu Jiahui has been tugged at by one thing in her heart. As a medical social worker, she is well versed in the hospital's inpatient escort system. Because the hospital is an old hospital and the space is small, in order to avoid cross-infection, it is recommended that each child can only be accompanied by one adult. Specific to the Mozhigen family, such an institutional arrangement means that the accommodation of the brother and sister has become a problem. Their financial situation clearly does not support a hotel stay.

Originally, Mo Zhigen had a plan: his mother would accompany his eldest sister to the ward, and he and his younger sister would sleep in the corridor of the building, no matter how cold it was.

Hu Jiahui felt that this was inappropriate. She knows that there are also small medical assistants around the hospital to choose from. It is not far from the hospital, one subway station away, and the "home outside the home" established by caring enterprises and charities is specially provided for families in need of medical treatment in other places.

Here, there are several rooms available for both the child and the parent. The common areas have shared kitchens, laundry rooms, dining rooms, activity rooms, etc. When each family moves in, they can receive daily necessities including rice, flour, grain, oil, toilet paper, shampoo, etc. The part that needs to be paid by the family is basically only the cost of raw materials for three meals a day.

The problem is that there are also rules in the medical assistant's home, and minor children need to be supervised by an adult. "Contact to apply first, because the small family is free and has limited resources." Hu Jiahui said, "I called, and there happened to be a vacant room. After the small family learned about their special situation, let them go over first. ”

"The ideal plan is for the mother to live with her two minor children outside the home of the medical assistant, and ask a nurse to accompany the children in the hospital." Hu Jiahui said, "But on the one hand, the eldest sister doesn't let her mother leave an inch, and on the other hand, they don't have extra money to hire a nurse." ”

Together, we can help reduce costs

The issue of escorts was eventually resolved.

When she arrived at the doctor's home, Hu Jiahui continued to think of ways to see if there were any volunteers who could help take care of her. A family who applied for the same medical assistance at the same time was very moved after learning about the situation of the Mozhigen family and volunteered to provide care services. In this way, Mo Rigen and his little sister have a temporary guardian in this small medical assistant family.

But this is not a long-term solution, and then, Hu Jiahui communicated with the department many times. After understanding the situation, the department said that it would determine the treatment plan as soon as possible, treat it as soon as possible, shorten the hospital stay as much as possible, and help them reduce the overall treatment cost.

After arranging these things, Hu Jiahui took the two children to eat, helped them clean up the house, and received a change of sheets, quilt covers and other items. The small family also prepared toys and books for them.

If it is not used as a family for children, the medical assistant home can be used as a homestay. "There was a big balcony in the room of Mozhigen and sister. They were especially pleased. The little sister was bouncing on the bed. Hu Jiahui said.

胡嘉慧發現莫日根帶來的電鍋已經發臭了，因為之前沒地方清洗，就叮囑莫日根不要再用了，並買來蔬菜、水果，手把手教會他各種電器的使用方法。一直到晚上9點多，胡嘉慧才離開小家。走到地鐵站，她又折返回去，提醒他們不要開窗戶，因為是高層。

Medical social work is not simple

Next, the Morrigan family was divided into two parts. On the one hand, the eldest sister was diagnosed with demyelination of the central nervous system, which is a neurological disease and was professionally treated by the medical team. On the one hand, he and his little sister live in a small family under the supervision of the volunteers' families, and talk to Hu Jiahui every morning, noon and afternoon. After work, Hu Jiahui usually visits them, takes some pictures of them, and shows them to her mother the next day.

It lasted like this for about half a month, and Mo Rigen's eldest sister could be discharged from the hospital. Hu Jiahui agreed with the children that when the eldest sister was cured, she would take them to Beijing for two days, but she didn't expect Mo Rigen's father to be sick at this time and needed them to go back quickly.

"In the end, it was the staff of the medical assistant's family who sent them on the train and changed the clothes donated by the caring people." Hu Jiahui didn't send it because she had something, but she was very concerned about the family and never cut off contact. "After they leave, the children will contact me often and wish me a good New Year. Especially Mozhigen and the little sister. This, she said, has made her cherish her job as a medical social worker even more.

In Hu Jiahui's view, sometimes for patients and families, the difficulties caused by the disease itself are not difficult to solve, while other difficulties need more attention. "Especially the families of critically ill patients, their psychological, economic, and social pressure are very high, and it is very difficult to endure under the interweaving of various factors. And when someone tells them that they have this or that resource to use, they will at least know what to do and slowly get out of the ordeal. "In the face of many problems, some families don't know how to deal with them, and we can be the first to show up when they are helpless, give advice, link to resources, and provide free substantive help." ”

There are many things that medical social workers can do, Hu Jiahui said, in terms of economy, they can help families in need to connect with public welfare funds, seek policy and welfare support, and link online fundraising resources; Psychologically, psychological intervention or other aspects can be used to provide an outlet for family members to vent; In terms of treatment, if the child has poor compliance, it can be solved through medical game counseling; In addition, hospice care services can be provided.

"We are a team as a whole, and the MSWs are supported by the whole team in the hospital. The key reason why we are able to carry out our work in the hospital smoothly is because of the support of the department, which allows us to stay in the department smoothly and form a close cooperation with the medical team. Hu Jiahui said.