STOREEZ

Reflections on Chronic and Terminal Illnesses, and the role of the Community Social Worker

 

For me, a social worker working from a community based setting; assessment is an essential aspect of social work. Assessment guides our intervention, and is also an important step in identifying how different members of a family system are affected by the problem. Within the realms of palliative care, there is that additional step to explore further how the patient is emotionally and physically affected by the terminal illness. There is also a need to understand the experiences and need of the caregivers in the family who are inextricably linked to the patient.

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.

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. 

Give Us A BREAK!

 

 

 

 

As you all know, we social workers toil long hours to serve our clients. It's a calling, but sometimes we get tired too. In the end, we are all human... at least I think I am. 

 

So...You might be asking (or you may not): How can I do my bit to help social workers, Specifically Social Workers in my Agency (come on guys, you can only help bit by bit).

 

Well, you can do it by giving us a break! A couple of my hardworking colleagues have put up a video for submission into the Million Dollar Memo Competition, where, should we win, the ENTIRE FREAKING organisation gets to go on an all expenses paid trip to QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA!

What can you do so we can go on this free trip? Well just show us your support by clicking "Like" 

HERE,

HERE

 

or if you are really busy, please go HERE

If you think you are a person with a good heart (just like what us social workers supposedly are!),

You can click HERE!

 

And if you are really good hearted, you can get MORE of your friends to like the video HERE! I have a feeling you won't, but why not break the norm and try to prove me wrong? 

 

Happy labour day everyone!

 

(oh, and did I mention: Please Like Us!)

 

Professionalisation leads to increased rationalization?

 

Social work in Singapore is slowly undergoing a transformation. Where social services used to be dependent on the philosophy of the respective Voluntary Welfare Organisation or Family Service Centre, services are slowly being monitored and assessed by the governing bodies such as the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) and the National Council of Social Service (NCSS). Outcome measures and policy guidelines are slowly being developed to ensure that social service agencies are able to be consistent in their intervention and more importantly, provide a high standard of service delivery.

 

Moving Target

"Danger Zone: I'm all alone and I'm a moving target"

Many a time, during networking events and happenstance meet ups with veteran social workers, I keep hearing the sighs and longings for yesteryears where "Social Workers' really did social work", "Got down and dirty in community work", "Conducted intensive home visits" and "Advocated strongly for clients' needs" in a time which was really "tough" and "difficult". 

There are also calls for Social Workers in Singapore to be exposed to third world conditions so that they would be able to really "do" social work, and also understand the skills needed to be a truly effective professional. 

There is a lament on how social workers today are not handling the real problems of society, being office based aircon loving people, and preferring that their clients come to the FSC for appointments instead of really conducting outreach and home visits to identify clients in need. They resort to "armchair" counselling and forget the true nature of social work. 

Although I strongly respect these individuals and the contributions they made to Singapore's social development (really I do, in fact most of them are my professional mentors), I can't help but feel very uneasy in response to these statements. I will admit that times certainly were tough in Singapore's socio political climate 30 - 40 years ago, and it was not easy supporting and empowering the community in need. Efforts towards community reorganisation and outreach in social welfare development by these pioneers of the profession are to be applauded. 

However, I firmly believe that these statements are unfair.

FSCs: Bastion of the profession, or potential white elephant?

For folks who don’t know, the Family Service Centre (FSC) was designed to be the one stop centre to cater to the psychosocial needs of the community, kind of like how polyclinics cater to the biological wellness aspect, how the community centres cater to the community cohesion needs (and most times socio recreational needs) of the community within a fixed boundary. Hence there are about 37 FSCs catering to residents within specific boundaries within Singapore’s community.

 

Game Dynamics: tapping on other realms of knowledge and expertise

Social Workers endlessly work on the pursuit of this idea of professionalism, where we attempt to increase the status of the profession through the clear demarcations of boundaries identifying specific roles that only social workers can do, building up our own body of specialised knowledge and theories, and clearly identifying the professional credentials that allows one to be called a social worker through the process of accreditation.

However, as we proceed towards clearly defining our roles, I wonder whether these clear fences only serve to create a boundary between us, and the acquisition of skills and knowledge that are currently expanding rapidly elsewhere. This is especially pertinent in the crux of how social work theories cut across the many different bodies of knowledge realms: Economics, Sociology, Geography, Statistics, Public Policy, and many more. And through this process of boundary building, are we then creating further distance between ourselves and our service recipients, the clients with whom we are tasked with the management of dependency in society (Popple, 2011).

Outreach

Just completed an outreach activity under my agency today. With Singapore consisting mainly of flats, doing door to door knocking can be an especially tiring endeavour, especially on this especially hot and sunny Sunday morning. 

Floorball, Social Work, and Life

 

For most of you who may not be aware, floorball is a sport similar to ice hockey, minus the ice, skates, protective equipment and the violent scuffles. 

Ok maybe there are some violent incursions in floorball. The game comprises of 5 on court players with sticks and a goalie with a helmet, guarding the goal. The aim of the game, as you hav probably surmised, is to score more goals than the opposing team. The goalie spends most of the time on his knees guarding the goal.
For more information you can check it out here or just google floorball!

Once upon a time this on court player was given the chance to become a floorball goalie for the first time. Thinking about his experiences as a goalie in his other sporting endeavours, he decided to take up this new opportunity with gusto.