LO3 – Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
LO5 – Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
INVESTIGATION
The first session of Swimming with Hougang Care Center was a get to know session as well as a little introduction to what the service is about. My understanding of the service is that we are empowering people with mental health issues by leading activities in the pool (infant pool) to build mental resilience to cope with stress, improve their self-confidence, motor skills, fitness and overall well being. We also covered and read some of the SWOT analysis from last year, with one of the major weaknesses being punctuation. Last year, the team struggled to pick our partners on time as they arrive at 3 pm sharp, which is when school ends. This makes it hard for many to be there as some had to rush down from the 6th floor. Other than that, the session was mainly on building and fortifying the relationship between everybody in the service.
The second session was more about investigating, where we brainstormed how we could find out more information about our Service partner and the issue in which they are tackling with MISO (Media, Interview, Survey, Observation) as well as brainstorm some questions to ask the Hougang Care Centre’s Director and staff.
These are some of the questions we would ask to find out more about our partners:
- Is there anything that we should avoid in terms of activities or actions?
- If the members don’t want to participate – should we let them be? Or encourage them to participate?
- What are their habits? What’s their daily routine?
- How do they react to activities and certain situations?
- How can we determine or know the nature of their disability? How to know what activities suit them?
- Are there going to be people who have specific needs? Or things we should know.
- English ability? Or What languages can we expect to hear?
- What activities do they enjoy the most?
- How do they introduce new activities to the members? Direct instruction? Demonstration?
- What activities do they already have at the centre?
- How do we react to unfamiliar behaviour?
We also decided on our leadership team, which was pretty straightforward. I didn’t go for a leadership role in this service because I worry that it may become too much for me to handle as I am aiming for a leadership position in the college service I am in, 0WES. In the local service, we have Owen and Lucy co-chairing, Anna on logistics, and Shweta on communications. Arkie and Poppy will be co-chairing in the second semester of the service.
In the third session, our Service Partner came to our school to give us a brief introduction as well as an explanation of regarding their actions towards the issue of mental health issues. They also gave us time to ask them questions that we have.
Courtesy to Owen, our service’s co-chair, for taking notes
- Many of them have a job, some may be too tired to participate in sessions
- The end goal is that they stay with the centre for two years and then can move on
- Try to encourage the members to join in the activities
- Don’t be patronising, they are members, not patients
- If they want to be back in society they need to feel included
- Most are English speakers – don’t always need to speak Chinese
- About 10 people per session
- schizophrenia, bipolar, autism, PTSD
- Make sure that the activities aren’t repeated from the actual centre
- They follow an American system, so they are freer
- They have choices to do activities
- We should go talk to the staff if we feel uncomfortable in any way
- If they choose to change outside, be firm with our policy
- Don’t take pictures of their faces, if need to, blur the faces out
This is a recording of the session, which I decided to take around 10 minutes into the introduction:
What struck me was the realization that they were normal, that I somehow, despite supposedly having exposure to them, still have the image of them as a stereotype. This realization made me disappointed with myself but also pushes me to change the image of them in my head by having direct interactions with them.
Something that I found amazed and important was that the end goal for them was to allow them to gain confidence so that they can assimilate back into society after 1/2 years. I find that amazing due to the image I have of the service partners as a care centre, which again, I will need to change how I look at them.
PREPARATION
After the interview session with our Service Partner, we begin to prepare and plan for the activities we would be running with our partners/members (the Center insists on us to call them members so that we are all equal). As there is an even number of people in the service, we decided to go in pairs to run each session. I was partnered with Hamza. Whilst everybody has decided on what activities we are to run, Hamza and I has yet to decide. This is because we wanted to decide what to do after experimenting with different types of activities and receiving feedback for them.
Here are some pictures of us brainstorming some activities we could do in preparation for the sessions.
I am looking forward to meeting with our partners after the October break and getting to know them. I hope that it will go as smoothly as possible.