Social Dimension Singapore

Are Good Intentions enough for the Helping Professional?

By Nicholas Netto

 

“Are Good Intentions Enough?”

    That was the question Sir Iain Chalmers posed to the audience at the recent Wolfson Haldane lecture he spoke at. Sir Chalmers is a doctor by training but is better known as a champion and advocate for the evidence-based movement in the United Kingdom. At an award ceremony in 2009, Chalmers was paid a great compliment when he was credited with having “saved more people’s lives than anyone else [one] can think of”(HealthWatch, 2010).

    During the lecture, he spoke candidly about his experience working as a medical officer in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, where with the best of intentions, he had not prescribed antibiotic prophylaxis to Palestinian children with measles as he had been advised against it during medical school. Unknown to him then was that there was sufficient evidence to suggest its effectiveness in alleviating the suffering and possibly saving the lives of those with measles. This experience had a profound impact on him professionally and ignited his “insistence that therapeutic claims should be informed by reliable research evidence” (BMJ, 2005).  

REFLECTIONS: Adopting a Strengths Based Perspective

In today's article, Faith Wong, a 3rd year Social Work Student shares her paradigm shifting experiences caused by reflections during placement.

 

Introduction

During my placement at a family service centre, I had the opportunity to work as a case worker. This role gave me the ability to interact with clients directly and the privilege of listening to their life stories. Such experiences have been filled with challenges but also great lessons. One particular challenge that I find myself tussling with is how I often view my client through a problem-based and pathological perspective. Such perspectives, as I have learnt, can be disempowering to clients and may cause dependency. This experience is thus important in my learning because it challenges me to think about my personal values and my position as a social worker in helping my clients.

 

REFLECTIONS: Social Work Placement

by Soo Hong Ling

  

The Mid year period is the time of year where Singaporean Social Work students are busy with their placements and internships in the various community and government based organisations in Singapore. Soo Hong Ling shares her 1st month's  placement experiences.

 

 

      It’s my fourth week into placement and it amazes me that almost every day, I continue to learn something new on the job. I suppose this is part of the joy of being a student or new worker – there is great room for personal growth.

 

REFLECTIONS: YEP Trip to Noida, India

By Benjamin Chengxin Yeo

 

 The Society of Social Work Students (National University of Singapore) and NUS Humanitarian Affairs jointly organised a youth expedition (YEP) trip to Noida, India from 5th December to 21st December 2010. The project was named rockNOIDA; an overseas community outreach effort aimed at educating underprivelaged children. 13 social work students participated in this project and were involved in planning, conducting classes, and community profiling in Prayas (a slum community).

REFLECTIONS: Social Work Fellowship in New York

by Peh Cheng Wan

 

2008 was the year I finally found what I needed, to embark on a 6-month journey to New York to complete a Social Work Fellowship with the Department of Pain Medicine & Palliative Care, Beth Israel Medical Center through the joint sponsorship of Assisi Hospice and the Ministry of Health (MOH) Health Manpower Development Programme (HMDP).  It felt almost impossible to be away for so long because there are always manpower concerns or “this ah pek”, “that popo”, “uncle joe” or “auntie julie” and their families who are going through a very difficult period of time where my professional intervention and support are most needed.  In that previous state of mind, I never found a good enough time to be away.  And in a different state of mind, things happened and in a blink of an eye, they became part of my memories.  A powerful internal resource that has been integrated to serve me well as a professional helper as well as a person…