More social workers for the elderly
By Alicia Wong, TODAY | Posted: 23 November 2009 0711 hrs

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SINGAPORE: The elderly man was being physically and psychologically abused by his wife, but their son – the sole caregiver to the couple and their intellectually disabled daughter – was unable to effectively intervene because he had to work.

Senior social worker Alvin Chua arranged to place the man in a nursing home. The elderly man was pleased, but this was short-lived as he passed away a week after admission.

It could be these slim chances of a "good end(ing)", or the daunting complexity of a case that discourage social workers from working on abuse cases involving the elderly, industry experts told MediaCorp.

Yet, given Singapore's ageing population, they say the demand for social workers who are willing to work with the elderly is likely to rise – so will the number of abuse cases. As it is, while cases of elderly abuse have held steady at about 178 cases annually, social workers believe the figure is under-reported.

Societal perceptions play a part, noted Mr Chua of Safe@Trans, a specialist centre dealing with domestic violence and elder abuse. Older adults are often seen to be in their twilight years with little capacity for real change, he said.

"As a result of such perceptions, many have already turned away from working with older adults, let alone those who are being abused and neglected," he said.

After all, when social workers deal with child-abuse cases, they hope parents will improve after counselling and training, or the child could be removed from the home.

But abused elders "are still going to be dependent on the family and, unfortunately, sometimes (the caregiver) is also the abuser", said President of the Society Against Family Violence Benny Bong, adding that the health of elderly victims may also deteriorate.

The complexity of the work is another deterrent, reckon those in the industry.

Not only is effort needed to persuade abused elders to come forward – there is no mandatory reporting of these cases – there is a whole range of issues related to the family to address, said Mrs Helen Ko, executive director at Centre for Seniors.

The problems range from caregiver stress to medical problems. "It's emotionally draining and time-consuming," she said. "Most social workers find it hard to work in those kinds of circumstances."

But president of the Singapore Association of Social Workers Kalyani Mehta feels, given more years of experience, social workers may reach a stage of maturity where they are willing, and able, to handle elderly abuse cases.

"(Fresh social work graduates) are not as exposed to violence because they may not have direct experience," said Dr Mehta, who is also an associate professor for social work at the National University of Singapore. She believes a good five years of direct social work experience would better prepare social workers for their roles.

Needed: A special breed

The good news, as Dr Mehta pointed out, is NUS undergraduates now show more interest in this field as they view this as an emerging area of work.

But Mr Bong, who teaches a graduate diploma course, believes there is often a "story" behind the decision to work with elders. One of his students heads an old folks home. He possibly cares for them in place of his parents, who do not live here. "He also has a heart for working with older people," added Mr Bong. "You must have that kind of personality. It's rare."

Others feel social workers need a strong sense of social justice, especially in protecting the rights of the elderly. "Those who choose social work generally prefer to (be) nurturing and (are) supportive, rather than taking people to court," said Mrs Ko, who used to work at St Luke's ElderCare and Sage Counselling.

So, how can this area of work be strengthened? "It's a new field ... people don't know how to do the assessment and there's some prejudice," said Mr Bong.

Compared to issues of poverty and child abuse, which have been around for up to 50 years, elderly protection has only gained awareness over the last 10 to 15 years, he said.

"(Social workers) need to be very clear that the elderly are not dumb. They are alert and have preferences. They can make good witnesses and (remember) accounts of what happened," he stressed.

One way to "sharpen" students' skills would be to teach from the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports' manual on managing family violence in Singapore, suggested Dr Mehta.

But Mrs Ko believes prevention is better than cure. "What is more important is providing infrastructure support to caregivers."

There are 600 practising social workers in Singapore. According to the National Council of Social Services, 100 new ones are needed yearly. In particular, having more Malay- and Tamil-speaking social workers would help.


- TODAY/so