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

 

Leadership Legacies

 

Someone I know passed away this week, someone who played a part in my leadership journey. I won't say that I know him well, neither would I say that he was particularly influential in shaping my life. Nonetheless, I think it important that I preserve some insights I gleaned from him in my short experience with him, especially since they are still being practiced by myself in my own leadership journey.

The 2 main things I hold are-

1. Don't major in the minor

Too often people are preoccupied with small details that don't matter so much, for example making sure their social reports are in impeccable Queen's English, making sure their staff carry on certain traditions that may be anachronistic for the sake of keeping traditions, being punitive to colleagues for small mistakes, etc. 

It is important to always have the big picture in mind- are these activities that you do, do they fit in the bigger mission of your organisation. In the case of social services, it could be: ensuring effective help is provided to people facing difficulties in the shortest amount of time. Sometimes in a bureaucracy people get waylaid by nitty gritty details and lose their compass, majoring instead in the minor.

2. Leading by thinking about solving problems

This is hard to explain, but the jist of it is about how we try and develop our leadership chops by finding possible solutions to a problem before presenting them to our bosses. We tend to expect our bosses to come up with answers and then complain if they are not aligned to our needs, but everyone in the organisation has a role to play in resolving problems.

Before presenting the problem to your boss, have a reflection first. Why is the problem happening? What could be potential ways to resolve the problem?

Before presenting it to your boss, maybe have a few possible solutions and also your recommended solution. Your boss will then be able to give you a more "experience-near" response or she might be able to give you a different perspective that you might not have been aware of.

When we leave this world, perhaps we hope to have left our mark in making the world a slightly better place and have influenced others. Sometimes the best way is through the values that we have passed on...

Rest in peace NL.

2017 Narrative Practice Conference: Honouring History, Weaving Hopes

For my presentation handout on ideas that have started influencing our social work practice, 

Click the Link below

Download Narrative social work practice

 

Caterpillar Story to identify skills of children. 

Download Caterpillar dreams

Harry Potter: of Pensieves and Portkeys

 

Was binge watching Harry Potter over the Chinese New Year weekend, and thought that the ideas of the pensieve and portkeys were useful metaphors to think about conversations we might want to have when working through the process of grief. 

The Pensieve Conversation: Tapping on memories for healing

I sometimes find, and I am sure you know the feeling, that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind.... At these times... I use the Pensieve. One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one's mind, pours them into the basin, and examines them at one's leisure.

Albus Dumbledore

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Canadian Carnival

The place where I staying, is somewhere in this picture.

 

My latest adventure has found me in Toronto, where I am involved in a work externship with the wonderful team at Oolagen,  a youth mental health service that is influenced by Narrative ideas, not only in working with the people who consult them, but also in how the organisation is run. I have not been able to post much in the past, particularly due to recent busyness in my role as a manager in my organisation.

Since I have slightly more time to reflect on practices, will take a bit more effort to document my adventures here!

One interesting experience I had here was when my landlady, Jane Martin (who's really a very nice lady), brought me along to a Neighbourhood committee meeting, where members of the small community of Winchester were meeting to discuss concerns about the presence of drug related activities in the nearby rooming houses. Pretty impressed about how the community did not practice a NIMBY (Not in my back yard) mentality and instead were keen on discussing ways to ensure that the programmes conducted for residents were appropriately done. They were also keen to be involved in supporting the individuals and families there.

Will update more soon...

Preferential Flexployment

 

 

 

In 2013, a number of us from my organisation coined the term "Preferential Flexployment" as a viable alternative to structured forms of employment in Singapore (we skilfully played on the terms flexible employment, combined them to create flexployment! Get it? No?)

As mentioned by the newscaster (smugly I might add), it is essentially the idea of part time employment with greater flexibility. Take for example Bakery Hearts, a Social Entrepreneurship wing if you may call it as such (you can find out about Bakery Hearts here, here and here). 

Multipliers: How the best leaders make everyone smarter

   As I partake in my journey into social work leadership, I thought that it would be good to start documenting some bites of tips and ideas from books I have read, which I have started using in the teams I am in. 

 

The Non-Suicide Contract

 

The practice of getting our clients to fill up a non-suicide contract is common in risk management work. Whenever there is a risk of suicide, we tend to be compelled to get our clients to fill up this form, which states that they would not be attempting suicide as it is illegal in Singapore. Often, there is a generic form that social workers would be able to use. 

My grouse with the non-suicide contract is that it seems to be a practice that is more focused on "covering our backsides" as opposed to ensuring that our clients are safe. We work towards filling up the forms, and then develop a false sense of safety as long as the form is filled up, because we feel that we have done our part. If anything were to happen, at least we can show others that a non-suicide contract had already been done between the social worker and the client. 

Hope is my Key

(dedicated to the therapists of the Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture)

 

 

 

Meandering hills

Dusty Roads

Stories of Despair

Stories of Pain

 

Despair and pain are but 

Filters

Layers of 

Dirt

That I must wade through

With hope as the key

 

Hope is the key

It unearths 

Stories of Survival

Stories of Skills

Stories of the sacrifice

of Parents and Martyrs

 

Hope is My Key

It guides my questions

Winning small victories

In the Journey

Of my People

 

Outsider Witness Response to the Life Certificate Presentation

The following recording is the outsider witness response to the Life Certificate presentation we did at the Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre for Victims of Torture (TRC) in Ramallah, Palestine.

The respondents are: Ala' Harb, a psychologist from the TRC; and Mehmet Dinc, clinical psychologist and lecturer from Istanbul, Turkey. Hana Masud is doing the translating.

 

Presentation @ Ramallah, Palestine

We had the chance to present the Life Certificate methodology in grief work in Ramallah Palestine, at the Second International/Palestinian Narrative Congress. The Congress, with the theme "Strengthening Stories of Survival and Resistance", was a joint collaboration between the Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture (TRC), and Dulwich Centre Foundation International.

 

 

The following script is the presentation we did: