Saturday, March 30, 2013
i'm totally amazed by my strong instinct of visiting Mr Tan.
cuz i really felt that he is the patient i met at work.
indeed, my instinct has proven me right.
and the whole experience is still deep-rooted in my mind.
the reflection i wrote of this amazing home visit:
"I went for a random home visit today and it was an impactful
one. Coincidentally it turns out to be a client whom I met 1-2 years ago for
financial assistance at my workplace. Mr Tan is a 70-year-old elderly with
Parkinson’s Disease. His daughter is only 10-year-old and I knew her through
the weekly UWC outreach. The wife is working full-time and the little girl has
difficulties looking after her father whose medical condition is getting unstable
lately.
The client is apparently looking frailer as compared to the
time I met him in hospital. Back then, he
could still able to manage his way to the hospital on his own. I remember
vividly how I had to “chase” after him for financial documents for application.
Though he shared that he had issues with his wife regarding the payslip, I had
to explain that it is necessary based on the protocols. Now that I reflected
back, I felt quite bad about chasing him for the documents, not knowing what
the family is going through and how difficult it is for them. Though Beyond
mainly engages children and youths, but the family is a system and what happens
to the parent will affect the child and vice versa. Hence, we should always go
the extra mile to support our children and youths and their parents.
Being “confined” in the office, there are limited
opportunities to observe our clients in their natural environment, to see how
things are like for them at home and the community they are living in. I saw
the 10-year-old daughter’s friends/neighbours coming over her place to play
with her and I see that as a very good emotional support. My teammate and me dropped
by the eldercare centre and explored the possible services to support Mr Tan
for his medical condition. We talked about meals delivery services and getting
community volunteers to befriend and support him. I was surprised that the
eldercare centre also engages the community elderly to do volunteering in the
neighbourhood. The discussion stimulated me to think about Beyond’s community
approach, promoting local volunteerism and working in strategic partnership
with other helping agencies to support the same community. I must say I really
find a lot of meaning and purpose in doing community work."
this is probably the most impactful takeaway from my 10 weeks of practicum.
♥ bits and pieces of my memories.
9:45 AM
9:45 AM
