Supporting Services to Divorced Families
‘Divorce’, ‘Separation’, these are tough decisions made by the parents and often lead to significant changes in one’s life. Whilst the parents are adjusting themselves to their new lives, their children will also have different psychological and behavioural changes arising from the parents' separation/divorce. In the best interests of the children, parents should work together and share responsibilities to contribute to the development of the children. They should work out the caring arrangement that is good to the children and manage the emotion of themselves and their children. The efforts from parents will cushion the negative impacts of this separation and also provide the children a stable environment to grow. In the hearts of the children, you will always be their parent forever, and your care and love would be a precious gift for the children.
In order to facilitate the separated/divorced parents to adjust to their new lives and to have a better understanding of the importance of parental responsibilities in raising their children, Social Welfare Department (SWD) has produced a series of handbooks for separated/divorced parents’ reference.
SWD also operates/subvents the following community support services -
Specialised Co-parenting Support Centres
The five Specialised Co-parenting Support Centres (SCSCs) operated by non-governmental organisations, subvented by SWD, provide one-stop specialised services for separated/divorcing/divorced parents and their children, to assist the separated/divorced parents in carrying out parental responsibilities under the child-focused principles, strengthening parent-child connection and providing support to children affected by parents’ separation/divorce and family changes, to promote their healthy development physically and mentally.
Service Content
- Co-parenting counselling and parenting coordination service (formulate and implement child care and contact plans) for separated/divorced parents, parenting groups, programmes and workshops for parents;
- Children contact service, including supervised contact/supervised exchange, between the children and their non-residing parents or significant others;
- Child-focused counselling/groups/programmes for children;
- Public education/publicity programmes to promote parental responsibility.
Integrated Family Service Centres
SWD and subvented non-governmental organisations operate 67 Integrated Family Service Centres (IFSCs) distributed across Hong Kong (including 2 Integrated Services Centres in Tung Chung), providing welfare services to address welfare needs of individuals and families of specific localities. IFSCs are set up to support and strengthen individuals and families through delivering of services under the direction of ‘child-centred, family-focused and community-based’.
Service content
- To provide a continuum of preventive, supportive and remedial services, such as counselling services, supporting groups and activities, for individuals and families in need (including parents troubled in marriage or divorced parents and their children), to cope with emotions and challenges arising from the family transition.
For more details on the five Specialised Co-parenting Support Centres, please visit the website of “Parenthoods goes on”.
Sources: Social Welfare Department