the consumers of this Department's services and whose well-being is the concern of us all. The social work process brings together the person needing help of one kind or another and the person who has within his grasp the means of giving help. In this situation, the social worker might suppose (if he were not trained to know better) that the relationship between himself and his client was that of superior to inferior. But understanding to some extent the workings of the human personality and the complexities of a modern society, the social worker approaches the person in need with a humility born of awareness that each member of the community depends in some way upon each other, that all vary in their capacity for self-direction and self-reliance, and while some stand at greater risk of personal disorganization or depend- ency, none is invulnerable. Those who were consumers of departmental services in the past year could not with truth be described as a cross- section of the community of Hong Kong, but it would be a serious error to regard them as different in essence from ones friends, or neighbours --or from oneself. The child in the day nursery testing social wings for the first time; the boy in the youth group learning to give as well as to take; the rebellious teenage girl demanding attention; the widowed mother thrust into a new and frightening role; the elderly woman learn- ing to live without vision--each is a human personality with particular needs and none greater than the need for kindness, understanding and respect. Officers of the department take pride in the fact that while persons coming for help or guidance may ultimately become statistics in the department's records, they are never regarded as such during the course of service.
104 Social workers are not, of course, the sole repository of the community's compassion and concern, and they would be the first to declare the futility of working without the active support and encourage- ment of a wide segment of the public at large. The ideal community has been described as one in which the person who has not been injured is as indignant as the person who has. In these terms, few communities could claim to be ideal but Hong Kong (in which cynics would say that the struggle for survival renders the man in the street immune from concern about the plight of his neighbour) produces evidence daily of the willingness of many people to be concerned about their neighbours and to demonstrate their concern in practical and material ways. Busy people still find time to devote to the work of the very many voluntary welfare agencies; the press and the annual reports of these agencies regularly report generous financial support; and the ever strengthening
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