Needs Survey

I assisted the family service centre (FSC) carried out a needs survey of the 3 and 4 room HDB residents in the neighbourhood. Basically the objective was to find out the challenges faced by different age groups, the services offered by FSC that residents can make use of, and also to introduce the FSC and its services to them. It was not easy, many people just shoo you off, saying they dont need any. Clearly when you peeped into their flat where they are people sleeping on mattresses in the living room or where the whole house looks so cluttered and disarrayed you sense these are the families that can probably benefit most from the FSC services. Unfortunately these residents' needs will never be fedback.

Several things strike me as common among the twelve families I interviewed, although the sampling is small and is not representative. Amongst the 40-54 age group, not a single one has planned for retirement and old age. A common remark passed is they are struggling and at best just managing, how then can they save or plan. When asked further when they intend to start retirement planning, all said when their children are independent. Needless to say the challenge almost all say they face is the fear of losing their job or, for cab drivers or hawkers, not earning enough to pay the mortgage.

Amongst the group above 54 years, what is quite fearful is quite a large number are having health problems and hence medical cost is of great concern. Diabetes, hypertension and cancer are medical conditions some of these people contend with. No wonder the government is worried.

Almost all parents with young kids are worried because their children are lagging behind or not doing well by their standards. So free tuition is the most needed service. Parents seem more worried about children's studies than their character buidling. In almost all the families that I interviewed none of the parents have time for sports or exercise. Quite a handful say if they have the time they would rather catch up on lost sleep.

All in all, perhaps 3 out of 12 families do not seem to have any issues and are doing fine.

The saddest encounter is a mother whose daughter is in jail and kept on asking whether FSC could help petition for shorter jail term. I also encountered a sad father who almost threw me out of the house. I was interviewing the wife when the husband came home. When told by the wife about the purpose of my visit, he told me the FSC was useless and could not help and could I please leave and dont waste everybody's time. It turned out that his son and daughter-in-law had sought counselling service from our FSC about their marital problems several years ago all to nought. His son now divorced is a bitter man who takes to drinking and the whole family suffers as a consequence. I was quite peeved because I was half way through and was doing fine with the wife. Fortunately I used my counselling tricks of being empathic. This was especially useful when I found out the man was Cantonese. So I said to him in Cantonese I can see how painful it was for him and his wife bla bla bla without defending the "uselessness" of the FSC. Wah, once you speak their dialect, it works like wonder and especially when I told them I was volunteering. Then he started to apologize in between his rantings.

These encounters again impressed on me how difficult parenting is admist the joys. Even as a child grows into adulthood, the child's struggles and pain will always be a thorn in our hearts. Whilst doing practicum at the FSC, all my 6 clients are parents. Except for 1 case, parenting was not the presenting problem. However in all the other 5 cases, the mothers are sad and fearful of the impact the presenting problems have on their children's development. Coming back to the Cantonese man, I told the Cantonese couple to adopt self care and remarked that they can not carry their children's burden forever. Sound advice which I should also practise sometimes but finding it so hard to follow (hehehe, false prophet)

Anyhow about the needs survey the FSC did something stupid. As a token of appreciation, they issue a key chain in the form of a $1 coin attached to a chain. Apparently you can use this for the trolleys at the supermarket instead of using a real coin. After explaining the wonder of the key chain to the interviewees, most will just utter some mild words of thanks whilst looking at the "useless" key chain desolately. One man however broke out into loud cynical laughter, "I where got need trolley, where got money to buy so many things"