Before the social visits, I had some misperceptions about the role of a
social worker in a Family Service Centre (FSC). I once thought that social work
in FSC only deal with counselling and financing the needy families. Thus, I was
amazed by her job scope when the social worker introduced hers. I think the most
tedious challenges of a FSC social worker are the assessment of the client’s
casework and the paper work needed for their intervention. To provide the best
and most beneficial services that will help the clients, social workers have to
ensure that their personal emotions will not influence their judgment while
they are assessing the caseworks. We have to sympathize, yet not empathize, the
clients. As the social worker, we should not feel so much for the clients and
conduct a biased assessment. Also, the administering of paper work takes up
much time of the social worker. In fact, to complete the paper work for at
least 40 active caseworks that last minimally for 3 months can be rather
exhausting. Other than these caseworks, social workers have to conduct the
preventive programmes, such as Kidslaunch and Youthz Connect (“Care Corner
Family Service Centre (Woodlands)”, n.d. ), to allow the vulnerable members of
the community to integrate socially in a safe environment. Social workers will have
to reach out to the community actively too, so that the FSCs will be made known
to the residents who may need help. Other than these services, I realized that
it is important for FSCs to work closely with the Community Development Council
(CDC), Social Service Office (SSO) and the Members of Parliament (MP). This
will help the clients to have a better understanding of the services and aids
that they are receiving from each sector, and reduce the time wasted on
referring the clients from one sector to another.
Although I did not have any direct interaction with the clients in the
FSC, I encountered a needy family while I was waiting at the reception area
before the programme started. The parents looked awkward and embarrassed when
their young daughter commented that the FSC has “air-con leh” and some of my
course mates stared at them. As a social worker, we have to be careful and
cautious when we interact with the clients so that we will not hurt their
feelings and dignity. Our unintended reactions can often make them feel
uncomfortable. During the programme, one of my course mates questioned that the
provision of financial aids may create clients’ dependency mindset. I believe
that we should not have such mentality of questioning the clients’ sincerity when
we are providing the services for them. In tutorial two, we already realised
that the policies and programmes in Singapore are more inclined to
Institutional Redistributive and Industrial-Achievement Performance (Mehta and
Wee, 2011). The Residual programmes are short-term projects that provide
“just-not-enough” help for the families to survive. If we feel that too much financial
help will create a ‘crippled mentality’ among our clients, the services we
provide may not be in the best interest of the clients. Some of them may even
be sandwiched between the cracks.
On the other hand, my visit to New Horizon Centre, a dementia daycare
centre, allowed me to have more direct interaction with the clients. From this
interaction and the occupational therapist (OT)’s sharing of his experience, I realised
that the duty of the staff is not simply providing food and activities to
occupy the elderly’s time in the centre. The OT uses his creativity and imagination
to invent new programmes for the clients to reminiscent their past to improve
their dementia condition, and also to make use of their remaining physical and
mental ability to ‘have fun’. These activities include dancing and exercising with
popular songs that the clients can resonate with, such as “Tian Mi Mi” and “Sio
Bak Cang”, simple mathematics games with small prizes and interesting art and
craft activities. The ultimate goal of these activities is to help the elderly
to be more socially integrated and to have a valuable old age.
I believe that more can be done for these welfare organisations and
FSCs. Their greatest problem is the lack of human resources. Although these institutions
have good facilities, it is insufficient if there are no professionals to carry
out the interesting activities and few volunteers to bring joy to the elderly
by spending time with them. I believe that the sharing of love and concern from
the community is part of the “many helping hands approach” (Mehta and Wee,
2011) that will provide both tangible and emotional support for these
vulnerable members of the society.
Word count: 777
Reference List:
Care Corner Family Service Centre (Woodlands). (n.d.) Our Services [Brochure]. (n.p.)
Mehta, K.M. & Wee, A. (2011). Social Work In the Singapore Context. Singapore : Pearson Custom Pub
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