TFS AFFAIRS CLUB KIT PROGRAMME. July September 2014

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1 July September 2014 TFS AFFAIRS Management Committee 2014/ 2015 CLUB KIT PROGRAMME Chairman Mr Lee Chuan Teck Vice Chairman Mr Edwin Chow Hon Secretary Mr Kwan Hoi Leong Asst Hon Secretary Ms Soh Hwee Yan Hon Treasurer Mr Keith Lau Chung Ki It was a fun filled and action packed period for the children as they were engaged in various workshops, outing and enrichment sessions. Asst Hon Treasurer Mr Yeh Chien Ee Committee Members Mr Ahmad Nizam Assoc Prof Chan Wing Cheong Ms Goh Lee Fen Ms Maureen Fung Mr Lee Kim Yiang In this issue: TRANS FSC (Bedok) TRANS SAFE Centre TRANS FSC (Bukit Timah) We had the pleasure of inviting Singapore Children s Society to conduct two workshops with the topics of Take charge! and Understand why different people could have different feelings over the same matter to increase our children s confidence in their locus of self control and also empathy for the others. Our volunteers also planned an exciting enrichment session for our children to unleash their inner rock star. They made various instruments out of recycled materials and formed their own bands for their five minutes of fame on the Club KIT stage. It was heartening to see that the children worked well together and overcame their shyness to put up a splendid performance! The highlight however, would be the much anticipated outing to Megazip Sentosa. Our children s agility, strength and guts were put to the test as they were put through challenging rope courses. They were rewarded with the flight of their life on the Megazip line as they zipped 75m above ground and 450m across Sentosa s Siloso Beach. At the end of the day, what mattered to the children was not only the memorable experience, but knowing that they have challenged themselves out of their comfort zones in ways they cannot possibly imagine! Quek Pearl Ning Social Worker

2 TRANS SAFE CENTRE LEARNING JOURNEY TO HONGKONG As one of the elective modules for the Master of Gerontology course, I had the opportunity to complete a five week internship. Hence, this led to a rewarding learning journey to my country of birth, Hong Kong in the end of June Cyril and Amy Cheung Aged Care Complex (CACACC) located in Shatin was a recommended internship venue as the centre is the first community-based stroke specialist centre in Hong Kong developed by a team from Sheng Kung Hui who discovered that there is a service gap and identified need. Research shows that people who have been hospitalized for stroke will benefit from highly intensive rehabilitation during the initial months to help them regain higher levels of ability and independence. However hospitals and rehabilitation buildings in Hong Kong do not offer such intense and stroke-specific therapy. Interestingly, despite CACACC being part of a welfare organization, it is managed on a sustainable self-financing mode due to the demand for the service. My supervisor and senior service manager, Ronnie shared that this allows the centre more flexibility as compared to depending on government subvention. As Sheng Kung Hui offers a range of services for adults, older adults and families, my interest was piqued as not only would I engage with these groups frequently, I would also have the opportunity to observe the provision of integrated health and social services in the community and within a multi-disciplinary setting. In brief, my internship activities across the five weeks consisted of engaging inpatients and outpatients of CACACC, home and field-site visits, case conference, participating in programmes and outing, applying for project funding to pilot ideas and conducting a sharing on financial elder abuse with social workers. I even visited a retiree and senior fair with my supervisor which raises awareness on multi-dimensional services, provides a platform for outreach, education, the latest product designs and gerontechnology. Sheng Kung Hui also runs other community-level one stop services, of which I visited Cheerful Court (which houses retirement facilities, retirement housing for independent elders and a nursing home) and Tseung Kwan O Aged Care Complex (which houses a community centre for independent elders, a day care centre and a nursing home). Continue next page... Page 2

3 TRANS SAFE CENTRE From the previous page... More importantly, a few key learning points impressed upon me from this short but fruitful trip. In my first week, I was in awe of Hong Kongers meticulousness and openness in their documentation. For my orientation, I could easily access online or offline directory of services by district and category, procedural guidelines on handling principles, protocol, good practice and roles, means-testing information available on websites, sixteen areas of service quality standards carefully constructed by the Social Welfare Department, comprehensive and inclusive vision, mission and values of civil services. As tedious as it sounds, the result seems to be effective communication with a sense of transparency, clarity, informativeness and efficiency. Another important learning point for me was reflections on the contribution(s) that can be made by both healthier and frailer adults, because I met an older adult with severe dementia who suddenly shared vivid details about Hong Kong s history although her speech was usually irrelevant. I was also deeply influenced by CACACC s leadership in innovating social work to cater to needy higher income groups, a group who may have differing expectations, alternative options and priorities but some similar human health and social care needs. Finally, another personal experience with younger staff made me realize the importance of mindset, that impacting younger adults to understand older adults and about ageism better is indirectly a service to older adults. Coming back to Singapore, I am still digesting these four to five key takeaways. As a social worker and welfare organization, do we take the lead to know, partner and respond to a service gap and known need? Are we able to collaborate with policymakers to come up with a district directory of services and written guidelines for our casework and work with professionals? Are we ready to look into hidden strengths and potential contributions of both healthier and frailer adults? Are our social services and welfare organizations approachable enough to wealthier adults in need? Are we positively impacting the mindsets of younger adults? These will continue to be food for thought for myself as hopefully we - positioned at the community-level - pace ourselves to progressively transform with the changing demands of our uniquely Singapore multi-cultural society. For more information on Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Elder Services visit: www2.skhwc.org.hk/site/portal/site.aspx?id=a8-401 Odelia Chan Social Worker Page 3

4 TRANS Family Service Centre (BUKIT TIMAH) MENTORING PROGRAMME SIGNS EVERYWHERE Centre-based mentoring mentor, Gwen conducted the Signs Everywhere activity with aim to promote greater awareness of the children to their surroundings. Most of us tend to not pay attention to signage even though they appear in our lives often, thus Gwen hoped that by showing the children the different signs, it will help them to become more aware of their physical surroundings. During the activity, the children were shown a PowerPoint slideshow with all the different signs that are present in our daily lives in Singapore e.g., No Smoking Sign, No Littering Sign, Handicapped Toilet Sign, No Cycling Sign, Speed Limit Sign, Do not pluck flower Sign etc. The children were asked if they know what the signs mean and where they have seen such signs. Follow-up from the PowerPoint slide presentation, the children were asked to discuss with their respective mentor on the reason behind the need for such signs to exist. Mentors were tasked to facilitate this discussion with their mentees by probing their mentees to think about the reasons and not tell them directly. This was hoped to promote the children curiosity and empathy for others and their surrounding when they think about the rationale behind such signs. Wong Mei Toon Counsellor Page 4

5 TRANS SAFE CENTRE / TRANS Family Service Centre (BUKIT TIMAH) RESILIENCE PROGRAMME HOW TO TRAIN YOUR FIRE A total of ten Primary 4 & 5 boys participated in the group workshop titled How to Train Your Fire (which comprised awareness raising, skills training and experiential components, aimed towards anger management) conducted over three afternoon sessions on 11 th and 25 th July & 5 th August Some of the boys were not very responsive when they first joined the group but subsequently warmed up and interacted with the others through ice-breaker activities. The use of different modes of learning allowed them to share their experiences, to reflect, learn and practise new skills in coping with their emotions. The boys were especially participative and enjoyed the hands-on activities and movie screening segment. We observed better teamwork and more open sharing when the boys worked in smaller groups. The boys gave positive feedback after attending the workshop. Elaine Lee Programme Executive FOCUS - HAPPY 49TH BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE On 4th August 2014, TRANS Family Service Centre (Bukit Timah) staff celebrated Singapore 49 th Birthday together with 90 senior citizens from FOCUS. Ms Sim Ann was invited to grace the celebration. Our seniors were delighted to receive a hand held flag as souvenir. The seniors and the staff sang the National Anthem and recited the National Pledge together with our MP, Ms Sim Ann shortly after her arrival. Our seniors greatly immersed themselves in the celebration with the sing-a-long and cake cutting session. They also participated enthusiastically in some interactive games prepared by the senior volunteers. Buffet was served to the seniors with the help from the senior volunteers and the staff. Our seniors and staff had enjoyed themselves and the celebration ended sweetly with an ice cream for everyone. Tan Wei Ling Social Worker Page 5

6 TRANS Family Service Centre (BUKIT TIMAH) BASIC VOLUNTEER TRAINING WORKSHOP IN MANDARIN 29th September 2014 was the day TRANS Family Service Centre (Bukit Timah) held its Basic Volunteer Training Workshop in Mandarin for 8 volunteers. This half-day training was organized for our team of volunteers who specifically work with elderly clients. Conducted by Senior Social Worker Ms Chow Kit Seen, this experiential workshop covered areas such as qualities of a volunteer, communication skills and basic counseling skills. Some of our volunteers learning takeaways from the workshop were : Having appropriate boundaries when relating with clients Patience How to provide empathic listening How to develop the self-esteem of elderly clients Our volunteers also appreciated the opportunity to catch up and bond with one another over the course of this workshop. Wendy Yeo Counsellor Contact TRANS Family Service Centre (Bedok) Blk 411 Bedok North Ave 2, #01-106, S(460411) Tel: Fax: transbd@trans.org.sg TRANS Family Service Centre (Bukit Timah) Blk 1 Toh Yi Drive, #01-143, S(591501) Tel: Fax: transbt@trans.org.sg TRANS SAFE Centre Blk 410 Bedok North Ave 2, #01-58, S(460410) Tel: Fax: transsafe@trans.org.sg Page 6