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Hong Kong experienced the SARS pandemic in 2003. Seventeen years later, the Covid-19 pandemic now challenges Hong Kong and the world. This study aims to unveil the impact of the pandemic on health social workers. One hundred and sixty-six health care social workers in Hong Kong were recruited to join a cross-sectional online survey from November 2020 to March 2021. This paper includes the analysis of the demographic information, fear of contamination, resilience, perceived social support and physical health only. Irrespective of the demographic background, the level of fear of contamination, resilience, perceived social support and physical health were similar. The mean scores of the two dimensions of fear of contamination (Harm avoidance: m =  7.49, s.d. =  3.25; Disgust avoidance: m =  7.75, s.d. =  2.90) were higher than those of general public and clinical samples with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. No moderation effects were found in resilience and perceived social support in the relationship of fear of contamination and physical health. Instead, direct effects were shown.The impact of the pandemic on health social workers was universal. Psychoeducational programs to alleviate the fear of contamination and organizational-level interventions to improve workplace social support are highly needed.

Objectives: This study aims to identify heterogeneous depressive symptom trajectories among the widowed elderly in China, to explore predictive variables of latent class membership, and to detect between-classes differences in life satisfaction across time. Method: Data of 198 individuals widowed between 2011 and 2013 were drawn from The China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), a nationally representative survey. Latent class growth analysis was employed to identify depressive symptom trajectories across 2011, 2013, and 2015, and a three-step auxiliary approach was applied to detect predictive variables of latent class membership. Mixed Analysis of Variances was followed to make between-class comparisons on life satisfaction across time. Results: Four grieving trajectories were identified: resilient (54.6%), chronic grief (23.7%), depressed-improved (11.6%), and chronic depression (10.1%). Older age, living exclusively with spouse before widowhood, and agricultural Hukou were significant predictors of depressed-improved, chronic grief, and chronic depression patterns, respectively. Life satisfaction in all groups except for the resilient one remained stable across time, and that of the chronic depression group was significantly lower than those of all the remaining groups. Conclusion: Consistent depressive symptom trajectories during late-life widowhood exist across nations while the specific culture, values, and resources in the Chinese context may have contributed to a particularly high proportion of the chronic grief trajectory. More efforts should be made to identify patterns with predictors before support are provided, and interventions need to be tailored to target specific needs in each subgroup of the elderly during their transitions to widowhood.

Purposes/objectives: This paper reports the comparative efficacies of integrative body-mind-spirit intervention (I-BMS) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in patient-caregiver parallel groups for Chinese patients with lung cancer. Design: Randomized controlled trial (RCT). Methods: One hundred and fifty-seven patient-caregiver dyads with no marked functional impairment were randomized into one of the two interventions with eight weekly patient-caregiver parallel groups. Assessments were conducted at baseline, within one, eight- and sixteen-weeks post-intervention. Effects of treatment group across time were analyzed by multilevel modeling. Findings: CBT led to greater reduction in emotional vulnerability than I-BMS. I-BMS resulted in greater increase in overall QoL and spiritual self-care, and more reduction in depression than CBT. Patients in both interventions experienced improvement in physical, emotional and spiritual, except social, domains of QoL. Conclusion: I-BMS was more efficacious for diverse domains of QoL, and CBT was more effective for emotional well-being, despite the relatively small between-group effect sizes. Implications for psychosocial providers/policy: (1) With the expanding repertoire of psychosocial interventions for families facing lung cancer, it has become imperative to investigate the comparative efficacies of empirically supported and culturally adapted interventions. (2) Our findings show that I-BMS was more effective for diverse domains of QoL, while CBT was more efficacious with emotional well-being, although both interventions led to significant improvements in physical, emotional and spiritual domains of patient QoL. (3) Patient-caregiver parallel groups have been shown to be effective for enhancing QoL of Chinese lung cancer patients. (4) Care professionals are encouraged to dispense interventions based on the idiosyncratic needs and preferences of the patients to maximize the treatment effects.

Presence of growth after traumatic events was introduced to the academic community about a decade ago (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1995). From the conventionally neglected perspective of Chinese widowers, this paper reports seventeen Chinese widowers' views on growth after conjugal loss. Findings seem to suggest that Chinese widowers would define growth as human learning, a definition probably influenced by Confucian teachings. Furthermore, contrary to claims made by Tedeschi and Calhoun (2004), it was found that growth may occur for some individuals without the presence of distress if the individuals have either a stable philosophy of life and death or optimism to buffer their distress or a sense of responsibility to suppress their distress.

Cancer patients experience enormous psychological stress in addition to their physical suffering. Neither disease- nor symptomspecific approaches in the conventional Western medical model or single- modal psychological intervention focusing on stress and anxiety are sufficient to relieve patients of their pain and trauma resulting from cancer. Through years of working with Chinese cancer patients and witnessing their growth and resilience, we were motivated to develop an Eastern Body-Mind-Spirit (BMS) Group Intervention model which has a strong emphasis on turning crisis into opportunities, and growth through pain. This model blends different intervention approaches, techniques, and outcome measures both from the East and the West. This paper describes our intervention approaches and discusses the theoretical background in relation to the concept of transformation and some qualitative findings which provide evidence for the study's applicability and effectiveness.