Happiness and Harmony clinical trials

Happy Family Kitchen Project II

The School of Public Health of HKU collaborates with the Hong Kong Council of Social Service (HKSCC) to conduct a district-based mega-project "Happy Family Kitchen", which using "eating" and "the kitchen" as a platform, to make the effort to improve effective communication in Hong Kong families. The "HFK 2" project is a enhanced version of HFK project, which plan to be conducted in the Tsuen Wan, Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi district from August 2012 to August 2013. This project adopts a cluster-randomized controlled design, with the application of positive psychology concepts as a theoretical framework. A community-based participatory (CBP) approach, which is an effective way to engage public health researchers and community members (NGOs, schools, other major stakeholders, and participants), will be used. Both quantitative and qualitative methods will be used in the evaluation of major outcomes (participants' family relationship and 3Hs) at different time points throughout the project. Process evaluation will be performed to evaluate the process of each component of the project. The whole project includes two phases: Phase 1: Model enhancement- an enhanced model of project is started with the training the trainer workshop to build capacity among the community partners. After that, the trained community partners design and conduct the district-based intervention programmes by using one of the five themes of the positive psychology framework, which teach the participants to practice positive behaviors for improving family communication, and in turn promote the 3Hs. The five themes are joy, flow, gratitude, savoring and listening. The pre-, post-, 4 weeks and 3 month follow up questionnaire surveys are conducted to assess the effectiveness of the programmes. All of the participating NGOs and schools will be randomly allocated into three groups: Intervention arm 1: core session intervention + booster intervention; Intervention arm 2: only core session intervention; Control arm: waiting list control, only questionnaire evaluations can be conducted at different time points. A subsequent qualitative study is conducted to further explore the outcomes, the problems and the requirements from the programmes. Phase 2: Model scaling up- A series of Professional Tool Kits consist of practice guides and evaluation tools for different service settings will be published with the contribution of participating NGOs and project partners. The tool kits will be the key reference and be further disseminated to a wider scope. A series of Professional Practice Seminars will be organized in different regions (including Hong Kong, Kowloon and New Territories). Social work practitioners of various service settings will be invited to attend the seminars. The evidence-based professional tool kits will be introduced and distributed in the seminar. Clinical psychologist will be the speaker on how to apply positive psychology in practice, and HKU staff will also illustrate the use of evaluation tools in assessing the outcome of the program. Participating NGOs of this project will be invited to share their practice experience in Tsuen Wan and Kwai Tsing district as well. another new edition of Happy Family Cookbook will be published and distributed to the whole territory. The new edition will be enhanced with more attractive content including healthy recipes and tips for positive communication etc. To enhance the interactivity of the cookbook, related apps for mobile devices will be developed for public free download.