Just Give the Benefit of the Doubt Lah!!!

 

Suspicion seems to be the general impression social service professionals (and disbursers of social assistance) have on whether  a certain person or client is telling the truth, and whether he or she is deserving of financial assistance, especially when information is limited to come up to a strong assessment of whether client really is cash strapped and urgently needs help. As we place ourselves in the role of the Gatekeeper, we fastidiously guard the provision of assistance, a parallel not unlike “the guilty until proven innocent” dogma that seems to informally pervade Singaporean mindsets. After all social problems are individual and family problems, but not due the stagnancy of the wages of the low income, limited options for social mobility, ballooning standards of living, etc, rite?

 

The lens we place on ourselves when we view our clients is investigative, and sometimes accusative, shaped by templates of human behaviours forged by our “experiences”.  Is it hence unsurprising that our clients may feel it necessary to withhold certain information to obtain the assistance they need. Although I admit that proper assessment of a client’s situation is needed, how do we do this and yet still maintain a supportive and collaborative stance to engage our clients to work on issues that really matter to them, and 

 

I acknowledge that there may be certain members of society who may be out to pick on multiple social service organizations for assistance on a regular basis, and are successful to a large extent at receiving social assistance from churches, mosques, VWOs, etc. But there are also those who are living off the streets, scavenging food thrown away at hawker centres for daily sustenance (yes, this still happens).

 

Again, if you think about the client who goes VWO or FSC “shopping”, this may be a coping stance they have adopted, as other patterns have proved unsuccessful in their quest to obtain normative standards of living.  There’s always a reason why persons approach a social service agency for assistance.

 

My key argument is thus: Why can’t we just give the benefit of the doubt whenever someone is in need? Even if the information we gain is not enough to warrant immediate assistance, the process of calling all the relevant social service organizations (to check if client has approached them and whether client is genuinely in need), consulting your peers, conducting home visits, has just too many layers and the time lapse may be too long to ensure client gets the assistance she needs. Especially so if the assistance is just $10 - $20 for transport or for food, where ironically the time we spend on “investigating” (manpower hours included) may eventually cost more than the amount for assistance requested.

 

I echo the words of a grassroots leader who told me bluntly: “Just give one time lah. At least we know whether or not he cheating us what. Some more we give him, he will be grateful to us, and next time he come back,  he will want to listen more to what advice we give him mah!”

Just give the benefit of the doubt. It goes a long way to rapport building and building a collaborative intervention plan. Even if it does not, it helps to shape further your assessment of the client’s case, and you can confirm and safely say that client has other sources of sustenance after further engaging and observing client’s coping patterns. Did we enter this profession to be bureaucratic, or did we forget our aim to genuinely help and engage the vulnerable in the community?

 

My last words are this: You can use the statement of “client is not motivated to work on her issues”. For clients who are probably in the bottom 10 -20% in Singapore’s financial hierarchy, when they “choose” to not be “motivated”, there are still in this vulnerable group.

 

Isn’t it then our role to continually strive to engage and empower them, to give them opportunities in social mobility, not only through creative individual and group work; but also at a higher policy making level?

 

Think about that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Shan]

My question is then when do we say enough is enough. We have helped the client once. He comes back again asking for say $10 claiming that he has no food. We get suspicious but we give him the benefit of the doubt. We provide some intervention and help him improve his condition but he comes again asking for money saying that he needs time to find a job so give him some money first. When should we start working on our suspicion. Can we allow him to depend on us to provide him with assistance every time he needs help?

Peace,
Shan

[Theromanticdragon.blogspot.com]

Taking a critical or ivestigative stance on a clients case isn't all that bad. But for the amounts of SGD$10 - SGD$20 letting them have the benefit of the doubt should'nt be too difficult, right? Lets be realistic about expenses. How long can that last? Given the modern economy which has been pretty much been "set in stone", if the client is looking for a job and is homeless that amount would at best provide the client a days relief and would serve his transport and food costs which is still morally a merit.

Naturally henceforth the client will return for more once its exhausted. In sincere cases I don't think its juvenile for them to do so, I'd say its conditioning more than anything else "Pavlovian" if you like. The boiling point would probably be how deep and accurate the client needs assesment truly is. Is it near absolute? Or then can the conclusion be verified by other means ? If the clients problem is sincere and returns for more monetary help its not baffling to figure out that the equation to the solution of the problem is not met. Surely, the chicken and egg genesis..

Feel free to input your much valued comments at http://theromanticdragon.blogspot.com/search/label/Urgent%20Help
Thanks.

[Fareez]

Shan, that's a very good point, and in fact always a challenging aspect in trying to negotiate between giving clients the benefit of the doubt vs ensuring that dependency is not inculcated. As Dragon pointed out, probably the fact that client keeps on coming for assistance, is probably a sign of deep seated financial issues , and the fact that they probably need the money.

I've no easy answer, but we need to be responsible when rendering assistance to engage and assess client's situation from the first moment it is provided.

For e.g. with the $10 mentioned earlier, some small contract may be agreed between worker and client, so that the worker would be able to engage the client and further assess client's condition, and come to clear working goals for intervention. In the meantime, worker would need to assess carefully whether client has other sources of support, through close collaboration with other agencies.

But the challenge is this: even if clients are unable to follow through an intervention plan, do we stop assistance on the basis of that? Because once assistance is stopped, client would still be in need if he has no other resources to turn to.

Perhaps its time to look into incremental changes instead of immediate job seeking and independence.

Dragon, there's a part in your blog about how much it actually takes to find a job; and I think that this is the reality, and sometimes some income is needed to kickstart the job seeking process.

[Theromanticdragon.blogspot.com]

Thats true fareez, do we stop assistance? I think its might not possibly be a question of bad character or anything negative on the clients part if he is unable to follow true but possibly one of character complexity. Like for e.g. some are more shy than others who are outspoken. Thus, if he faces an obstacle in a job interview or in a job itself he might not know how to deal with things and ends up quiting and starting in square one. This may open another door, job suitability maybe. There's not much use in enforcing an intervention plan or a job on a client unless he is willing. In view of a job I think that could be acertained thorugh his work history. However yes, incremental changes sounds good.

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