DO NO HARM

Musings of the local Social Worker

I'm a Social Worker in the Sunny Island of Singapore. Being in a people's profession, I work with individuals and groups in the community. My love and passion for the work I do is fuelled by the amazing stories and experiences I have in working with clients and groups in the community. Valuable lessons this colourful life has taught me, lessons which may be futile if I don't take the effort to document them in some way (hence this blog). 

This blog is about my personal views, thoughts and ideas. Most of them relate to my work and experiences with people and the community. Some probably won't.

A part of me feels that some information may be useful to at least someone out there. Feel free to share your own stories with me.

I'm a social worker, hear me roar!

Fareez

 

Simple Survey

Dear Friends, am doing up a simple survey on attitudes of Euthanasia for my masters class.

 

Would sincerely appreciate your participation through the following link! https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QQNZMXJ Hope that you can snowball the link to your friends too! =P Questions should take less than 10 minutes to complete.

 

Best regards!

 

Fareez

The Ivory Tower

The parable of the ivory tower is an oft used adage in social services, where us field practitioners would chide the limited knowledge our administrators and policy makers have. We feel that they are too disengaged from the needs of the ground, simply because of their limited field experience. We then quickly discount their policies and ideas, creating further tension between practitioners and policy makers. This sentiment has also affected social service policy to the extent that practitioners on the ground are encouraged to move into policy work as part of logical professional progression for their careers. We assume that someone with  a lot of experience on the ground would be more effective in formulating policies that would cater to the true needs of the community.

However, personal observation gradually shifted my perspectives on this, especially since I have observed individuals with strong field experience finding difficulties at the policy level (although this is very much a generalisation.)

I had the chance to speak to Human Resource consultant recently; consultants who would provide advice and problem solving skills to Human Resource departments in big organisations. When posed the question on whether one should have a few years experience in Human Resource before going into consultancy, he was quick to reply that few people actually successfully transit from experienced line practice in HR into HR consultancy.

The problem, he said, was that although HR knowledge was important to the consultant, understanding how HR fits into the macro perspective of the business organisation is a totally different ball game. Being too entrenched in a niche aspect of HR may impede one's view of the entire HR framework, and be too myopic when it comes to resolving issues and problems at the policy level.

Perhaps this emphasis of ground knowledge is an overstated fact. More importantly is the need for one to be well versed in current theories defining local practice, as well as conducting appropriate research and analysis of how social problems fit within the entire socio economic structure of society. Perhaps we might do better getting experts from various fields of politics, economics, etc, instead of just depending on the pool of ground enriched social service trained practitioners.

We can only stand to gain from learning from success stories from other professions.

Risk Management and Intervention for Clients with Alcohol Addiction Problems

Alcohol, whilst utilised as a social beverage for personal enjoyment and relieving the pressures of a hard day's work, is a depressant which one can be dependent on. Its effects can be debilitating, not only on one's health, but also on one's social life, as someone with alcohol addiction issues may alienate family and friends in pursuit of the next drink. 

Interestingly, risk assessment for Alcohol problems is usually not something I am used to doing, as normally it is difficult to engage client with such issues, for the very reason that they may alienate themselves from the family members.

Tips on the Management of Angry & Hostile Clients

 

Adapted from Berg (1994: 24 - 25)

 

1. Pay attention to anger and hostility since these emotions can alert worker to a potentially dangerous situation

2. If it is known that client has been hostile to other workers, find out what has been helpful or not helpful to diffuse such anger in the past. As much as it is helpful to know what to do, it is also helpful to know what NOT to do

3. If someone is paranoid or suspicious, do not argue with her; agreeing with how she sees things does not mean that you support the perception. 

4. Normalise client's anger and hostility towards you. Allow her to vent her anger and frustration for a while.

5. Don't rush to defend yourself, your profession, agency, department, etc; but attend to her complaints

6. Distance yourself from the target of her anger. It can be a person, organisation, or way of behaving. 

7. Give person space to move around and allow him to leave the room or walk out.

8. Affirm and reframe his anger as a method of coping or a way of addressing a need (e.g. the need to protect his family's privacy, in the case of a child protection case).

9. Explore how you would be able to work in a manner that is useful with the client, to gently move into a collaborative relationship. 

10. Do not feel compelled to stay in a potentialy violent situation. Allow yourself easy access to an exit.

 

Source

Berg, I. K. (1994). Family Based Services : A Solution-Focused Approach. Norton

Leadership Rule No 1: Take Responsibility (Blame)

Amidst SMRT's worst train breakdowns over a period of 20 years, and public (mainly netizens) calls for her head to be on the chopping block, SMRT's President and Chief Executive Saw Phaik Hwa has resigned today. 

As I contemplate on her resignation, and the fault accorded to her, I cannot help but wonder whether Ms Saw is truly "at fault" or even directly responsible. Did her actions lead directly to the cause of the train disruptions, or was it her failure to act? Is she the victim of just being at the wrong place at the wrong time? More importantly, would anyone else in her position be able to have stopped the crisis from happening? Is it the fault of the gatekeepers, the middle management who prevented information from being escalated to the top?

Same Same

Adapted from a parable from Rumi:

A Persian, a Turk, an Arab and a Greek were travelling to a distant land when they begin arguing about how to spend their one silver coin they possessed amongst the four of them.

"I want to buy Angur!" said the Persian.

"No! I want Uzum!" said the Turk.

"Oh please, none of those. We should spend it on Inab", said the Arab.

"Stafil for me!" the Greek demanded. 

The four travellers argued for sometime until a cunning linguist overheard their quarrelling. 

 

"Hoi! Stop your quarrelling, give me the coin, and I will make sure all your desires are satisfied!" He screamed at them. 

Taking the coin, he went to the nearby shop and bought four small bunches of grapes and returned to the four companions, giving them each a bunch.

"Hey, its my Angur!" Exclaimed the Persian.

"Oei?! It's my Uzum!" yelled the Turk

"You have brought me my Inab" Smiled the Arab

"No! this is Stafil in my language" said the Greek.

Suddenly the four doinks realised that they desired the same thing, only that they did not know how to express it to each other. 

Just A Few Life Rules

 

In a bid to keep up my postings, I decided to take the liberty to just list down some life rules I would like to think I live by. Perhaps one day I would have the chance to write more about them. 

 

In no particular order: 

Do no harm (am sure this one's a surprise)

Be uncertain (and you would be amazed how much you would be able to learn, and how new opportunities open up.)

Be humble (like me, the most humble guy around)

Be the difference (to make a difference)

Hang around where you are wanted (or at least appreciated)

Be with the people you love, and love you in return

Doesn't hurt to be nice (No, really it doesn't)

You can tolerate disrespect once, and once only.

After every suffering, there is usually relief

When there is relief, brace and prepare yourself emotionally and physically for future suffering

Change is an inevitable constant

As long as your intentions are pure, just and ethical, you are probably on the right track (this seems to overlap with "Do No Harm". 

Stop sometimes to smell the roses 

Things you do can be streamlined into 2 categories: 1. Things you love, and 2. Things you don't. Do more of 1. 

Be thankful for the good things in life (sounds like one of those spam emails you get, but that is just evidence that this statement is true!)

Love your family (and your wife!)

 

Done with smelling the roses, now back to work for me... :(

Means Testing = Unethical?

 

Sometimes I wonder if the entire system of means testing could be potentially unethical for clients in financial difficulty.

We make it too strict, it would be inflexible to the unique experiences of clients. Hence a lot of times, it comes under the judgement of the officer/social worker/case manager in charge of approving it. It is also sometimes scary that through this means, whether or not one receives financial assistance may also be determined not only by the assessment skills of the interviewing officer, but also through other external  and arbitrary factors such as the mood of the interviewer on that day, how much assistance was given before the current client, etc.

So, what would be the alternative?

Unclear boundaries

I sometimes get bored whenever I get caught up in conversations about setting clear guidelines and goals, in an intervention project, or even about the roles of social workers in general. Clear structure is needed in order to be effective in the work you do, or so I've heard. 

But then the lack of boundaries is probably what makes social work unique from other professionals. We work within specific principles with clear values, but the boundaries that define how we actually help our clients can remain fluid. In that way, we can bring our clients to the hospital (if its in line with our intervention plan and assessment of the case, and our presence would help the process), conduct some level of psychotherapy with them and their families, and also advocate for their needs at the community or policy level. That fluidity allows help to be rendered at all levels. 

Maybe we should focus less on asking "is this what I should be doing?" and instead have the voice in our head saying "How can I contribute to the helping process?" My thinking is: If there is a need, we should go straight into addressing it, instead of hesitating whether or not that need is part of our job scope. 

But then, another thing I learnt is that we need to pick our battles to fight.

And more importantly, how to fight them. 

Can we pretend if..

 

Was listening to Eminem in the song Airplanes part 2 (Featuring B.O.B and Hayley Williams), and as usual was surprised at how the lyrics made me think:

"allright lets pretend Marshall Mathers never picked up a pen
lets pretend things would have been no different
pretend he procrastinated had no motivation
pretend he just made excuses that were so paper thin they could blow away with the wind
marshall you’re never gonna make it makes no sense to play the game there ain’t no way that you’ll win

pretend he just stayed outside all day and played with his friends
pretend he even had a friend to say was his friend
and it wasn’t time to move and schools were changing again
he wasn’t socially awkward and just strange as a kid
he had a father and his mother wasn’t crazy as sh-t
and he never dreamed he could rip stadiums and just lazy as sh-t
f-ck a talent show in a gymnasium ***** you won’t amount to sh-t quit daydreaming kid
you need to get your cranium checked you thinking like an alien it just ain’t realistic
now pretend they ain’t just make him angry with this sh-t and there was no one he could even aim when he’s pissed it
and his alarm went off to wake him off but he didn’t make it to the rap Olympics slept through his plane and he missed it
he’s gon’ have a hard time explaining to Hailey and Laney these food stamps and this WIC sh-t
cuz he never risked **** he hopes and he wished it but it didn’t fall in his lap so he ain’t even here
he pretends that…" - Eminem

 

Explicit words aside, I was reflecting on the part of his song where he commiserated on how he might not have made it if he had lived a "Normal" life. Life challenges were the factors that made him who he was, and made him the successful man he is today.

Which also makes me wonder: as Social Workers, parents, leaders, etc, are we too obsessed with creating a "safe" culture where we focus on protecting clients/children/colleagues from the various stressors that they may face. We create systems and purchase luxuries for our children so that they would live better lives than we experienced, protecting them from bullies, school work, etc. 

But perhaps it is such challenges that would make them stronger. The need to think of strategies and alternatives at the developmental key points in their lives, which would give them the necessary skills to face future challenges, and face adversity with courage. 

Then, as social workers, how can we empower our clients towards finding strengths in the face of difficulty.

So that they come out better from it.