Improving Family Holistic Health in Probationers

To enhance individual and family well-being among probationers, family life and health education, including the skills and knowledge for physical exercise, healthy family functioning, strong communication skills, healthy interpersonal relationships, and positive self-esteem, should be strengthened and promoted. Based on the strong foundation of the FAMILY projects conducted by our research team in the past years, this project seeks to promote "FAMILY holistic health" for targeted families (i.e. probationers). The holistic health interventions are interactive and designed for behavioral changes to enhance individual well-being and encourage positive and sustainable health actions among family members. Thus, it is expected ultimately that the participants and their family members could enhance their family happiness, health, and harmony (3Hs). In sum, the project has the following contributions:

• Strengthen evidence-based practice Hong Kong probation-related topics are scarcely studied. There is a need for rigorous studies to build and strengthen evidence-base for probation services. This study will be one of the first studies to evaluate the effectiveness of probation services on individual well-being and family well-being utilizing a mixed-methods approach.
• Stakeholder engagement Stakeholders will be engaged throughout the research process. This promotes co-learning and empowering process, builds on strengths and resources within the community, and integrates knowledge and intervention for the mutual benefit of all partners.
• Train-the-trainer program Training will be provided to probation officers and/or workers at the Social Welfare Department. The result of this train-the-trainers program is that front-line service workers will increase and enhance their knowledge and skills to independently and effectively carry out interventions. Probation officers will act as role models for probationers and continue to implement our knowledge and techniques in their future interventions.

Inclusion criteria

• Be an existing probationer with 6 months of term remaining
• Reading and writing abilities for questionnaire completion
• Have family members that are based in Hong Kong (the rationale is that one of the secondary outcome is to improve family relations)
• Probationer does not have a developmental or intellectual disability
• Probationer aged 13 and above (the rationale is that youth under 12 years of age may not have the cognitive ability to complete questionnaires)

Exclusion criteria

• Sexual offenders
• Drug offenders