DO NO HARM

Why some beliefs might not be useful

 

Person I talked to (PITT): My knee has been extremely painful lately. Feels like a million needles sticking through it. The pain is throbbing. So I suspected something was not right. So I went to a healer.

Me: So what did the Doctor say?

PITT: Its not a doctor, a healer, a medicine man. A learned man who is gifted with the skills to see what others cannot see.

Me: You mean, like ghosts?

Tight Knit

I forgot what it was like to be working in a small close knit team. A small team is like a family where its parts symbiotically works and manages each other (of course they have to like each other in the first place). It feels really great when one can just focus on the work that needs to be done, and endeavour towards creating a like minded environment which would form the basis of a united organisation.

As we stumble upon this new territory, we slowly adapt and be more aware of the different bumps and crevices as our eyes accustom to the dark. 

 

I'm just rambling. 

Save me

 

Time and time again, I always get surprised and touched by stories of resilience and courage amidst adversity. Times like this keeps us grounded to the reason why we do what we do. We tend to forget our client's strengths, and their ability to overcome great obstacles whilst juggling multiple responsibilities and managing their stresses. 

And even more importantly, are the lessons they teach you: to appreciate what you have, and fight for what is right. I joined this profession to be a superhero, to save and touch lives.

But in actual fact, I was the one who needed saving.

And they are my superheros.

 

Familiarity breeds complacency

 

Just the other day, I was involved in a near-accident whilst driving. Not so much an accident that could have affected me, but one that could have actually caused the life of a pedestrian. I was making a left turn at a junction, without paying due attention to my near side to see whether someone was crossing the road. With only a glance, I confidently attempted to turn only to see myself narrowly missing the shocked dude who was crossing the road. 

For a time, I was wondering how such a thing could have happened. This was because I considered myself a safe driver (though some of my friends might beg to differ), and normally would take mental notes to myself about not speeding too fast, keeping appropriate distance from the car in front, etc. I guess that as we grow more familiar, that's when the complacency sets in. 

Familiarity is comfortable, and it makes us feel secure and comfortable. As a social worker I have already spent 5 years working with a myriad of cases, and with a sizable number of crisis cases. I tend to think that nothing much would be able to surprise me anymore.

But perhaps, it is in familiarity that danger lurks. Because in familiarity, we tend to blind ourselves from the nuances that could actually be critical to our clients welfare and safety. We fool ourselves with past templates that could fit our clients' experience, making them more similar than unique. 

For indeed, all families are similar, 

But also, all families are different. 

How Can I help You?

 

It has been a busy month of conducting networking meetings and outreach for this new programme that I am currently involved in. We have been going around several organisations in order to identify potential resources for our clients in the community. 

I met several providers of financial assistance, and was struck by certain commonalities in the perceptions of help seeking and provision of social assistance. Many help providing organisations were quick to stress on the need to ensure that "the client is not cheating us".

This would be done through the use of extensive databases (to check what other assistance someone is receiving); requiring ALL the relevant documents to be submitted before the process of assistance can even begin; making multiple checks at the different organisations in the community to ensure that client is not "telling lies"; and more. 

 

Cobra Bubbles

Here's an interesting take on social workers from the Lilo and Stitch Movie! (sorry about the Fandubbing, can't seem to find any original footage from Youtube)

 

 

Here in Singapore, there isn't much of the stereotype of the big bad social worker coming down to take away your children if you don't care about them, simply because social workers here do not have any mandate to just take your children away. Social workers here work with the Child Protection Officers under the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) to ensure that the children's safety needs are in place.

 

CMC: Cannot Make Curry?

How interesting that perceptions can be overturned, and respect be destroyed within the space of a few short days. Just a week ago, people would be (sort of) impressed about my role as an appointed community mediator, a so called leader within the grassroots leader tasked to maintain the peace (not unlike Captain America; ok very much like Captain America). Indeed it is no easy task to mediate neighbourly disputes (petty as they may be) especially within the sensitive multiracial climate of Singapore, where out of bound markers delineate what should and should not be said between the different races in Singapore, in order to maintain the peace. 

On 8th August, Today newspaper ran an article to emphasise the important role that CMC (Community Mediation Centre) plays in resolving the increasing number of neighbourly disputes in Singapore, showcasing the work of 2 Master mediators in Singapore (furnished with a case study each). All would have been fine and dandy, if not for one of the cases which were resolved, where the article claimed that the master mediator had requested for the Indian family to only cook curry when their foreign PRC (China) neighbours were not at home, during a mediated session between the two. Apparently it seemed that the PRC family were not akin to the strong smell that emanated due to the the cooking of that savoury dish. 

 

Interim Rental Housing: A policy for the people?

 

 

It is certainly about time that the Housing Development Board has decided to review its leasing model under for the Interim Rental Housing Scheme, which was started in 2009 to help needy families find temporary housing and accomodation whilst they resolve their housing issues. Flats that were seemingly slated for demolition in Bukit Ho Swee, Bedok, and Toa Payoh were converted into units that would be either shared by families, or smaller one and two room household units taken up by bigger families. 

In the current model, the management of these interim rental blocks is outsourced to private operators such as EM services who manage the care of these units, as well as the entry and exit of families from these households. These aspects would also include the monthly costs each family would have to pay, and how long they would be allowed to live in these flats. 

Happy National Day!

Singapore Celebrates its 46th Year of Independence today.

National Day is about redefining your role as a Singaporean, and thinking about how you are part of this one Team of people. It is about working as part of this team to make it better, and contributing to that massive effort in any possible way, big or small.

For me, that's what it means to be a Singaporean.

New Frontiers

 

It has indeed been a while since my last post (exactly one month in fact). Have recently been tempted to continue this "non-blogging" phase for a while longer, but remembered the pact I made with myself to keep this endeavour alive (in lieu with comments I tend to receive about the short-lived nature of my "projects").

Its been a hectic month, and truly, change can be extensive during the course of a month. Within a month, I have basically changed job roles, moving from the family service centres into the Prison based setting (the family resource centre at Changi Prison Link) to work with families of inmates, and also inmates who have been released back into the community.