Day 30

I finally managed to find a way to look for more journals and to find more articles, ironically by tweaking my search term from a noun to a verb. Somehow it appears that more articles appear when I use "aging" as opposed to "elderly" or "older adults". This is odd as I was previously aware of the need to find as many synonyms as the word you were searching for, but I had not thought that looking for a similar word in a different form would work. However I still have more articles on help-seeking behaviour for the elderly than I do on counselling for the elderly itself (though I need to double check this to see exactly how many articles I have of each type), and it feels like help-seeking articles were easier to find than counselling articles. This still does not detract however from how happy I am that I managed to find a search term that works, as well as figuring out finally how to make proper use of Ovid as an article search engine.

I am very pleased that I managed to find quite a few good articles through this search method though. Ploughing through each article will be a bit of a time-consumer however, gauging by how it took me almost the entire afternoon to plough through a 27 page article. I remember I used to actually skip the main methodology sections and jump straight past results as well and to discussion back when I was first starting university. Obviously along the way we were told that to do so would be entirely silly as then we would not be able to tell if the results reported by the researchers were actually as significant as they claimed them to be, and if the implications they drew were actually credible. Thankfully the more articles I read, the more I begin to get the hang of what each statistic or number means, and my past experience in research modules has helped as well.

I have also (finally) started thinking of themes and headings and some sort of basic structure for the literature review, although I still have a lot to work on for it as I am not sure how to craft it as yet. I am still doing the basic summaries of each article, so that I know how to group the literature and find out what points I can draw on from each article. The difficult part right now is figuring out what I want to present in the literature review, and how relevant it is going to be to what is necessary for the review.Hopefully I can start getting something out by the end of the week, if not I will be lagging quite far behind I feel.

Day 29

I finally finished up the FGD analysis by adding in the discussion portion, and sent it in to my supervisor. I am (obviously) very very thankful that it was received positively, but there is still a lot of tweaking and amendments that I need to do and look at, to make it flow better and to improve the structure of the entire analysis. One thing I had to constantly look at was to make sure that I was not repeating myself and was being as concise as possible, as I ramble on and go in circles quite easily. Especially with regards to the discussion, I was quite anxious to make sure that it was clear and made sense, and that I was not merely repeating what I had said earlier when reporting the findings. I am unsure if I want to throw in some theories, or if there are theories which I can relate to the discussion itself (will need to do more research to find that out). I am also unsure if I have addressed sufficient issues in my discussion that were raised when reporting the findings. I will probably need to take note of that and figure it out.

I am beginning to develop a backlog for my reflections as well, which is not a good thing as they do take quite a while to clear. Thankfully I have developed the habit of somehow taking short notes and saving them as drafts before publishing a brand new reflection each day, so that even if I am unable to publish a new reflection on the blog, at least I will be able to remember what I did and what I learnt when I finally do get down to writing out the blog entry reflections in full.

I also started looking for better ways to source for more literature for the literature review. Because I know that the review is due soon, I need to start focusing on the literature review again, and not become too engrossed o\in the FGD analysis alone. I find that I still need to find a better way to manage my time and split my time up between my work, as I tend to get stuck on one and become reluctant to leave it to go on to the next one (even though that is necessary to ensure that I do not over work just one portion of my brain - or at least that I do not run out of time to complete the other piece of work). I know that the literature review is due soon, and I iwll nee to start focusing on that as well and not merely on the FGD analysis. However, as usual, it was quite a frustrating day to search for articles, because there is as usual a lack of articles.

I am really beginning to sense a huge gap in research which for some reason has not garnered the attention of researchers sufficiently enough for anybody to start pouring new research into.

hopefully tmr will be better for that at least.

Day 28

I have literally just been scouring through journal after journal for the past few days, including today. I remember just the day before yesterday I thought I had struck gold by picking up on a new idea to look at gerontological journals instead of merely psychology, psychiatric, counselling, and social work journals. The rationale behind this would be of course that, these journals having everything to do with the elderly and older adults, that they woul definitely have something specific in relation to counselling for the elderly.

I was unfortunately sorely disappointed. I realise that even when it comes to gerontological journals that counselling is not that "hot" a topic. I find so many articles on other issues such as physical health, mental health, and so on and so forth. You would think that mental health would coincide with counselling as well (unfortunately no). I even find several articles on tai chi, which amazes me somewhat because I have always thought it to be quite a "niche" subject and had never anticipated that it would be of sufficient note to have entire articles written about it. Yet something that one would consider to be quite important and worth examination does not appear in the journals.


Despite "discovering" the term geropsychology (and realising that several articles or journals do refer to it) and incorporating it into my search, I realise I am still not finding much information on counselling for the elderly. This means I might have to go back to searching under the counselling journals once again - which does honestly feel a bit depressing. I am beginning to wonder how many articles I should include in the literature review as well, because I know that the search will never end (there will always be more articles I can look at, more articles I should include or which fit the description). And if I do not make myself stop, I might find that I do not have sufficient time to write the literature review, even after reading and finding all the articles.


I also have begun to wonder how articles are classified - as in how do you determine where to publish your article? For example, if you have an article or research paper on counselling for the elderly, would you go and publish it in a gerontological journal, or a counselling journal, or a social work or psychology journal? Would you publish it in more than one journal (is that even allowed)? And I realise that part of the reason why I do not know where exactly (or how to) look for these journal articles is because I do not understand how the authors and researchers classify their research papers (i.e. where they choose to publish). I wonder if there are specific guidelines set up that I could possibly refer to.

Day 26

Finally finished up the very first complete draft of the analysis! All that is left is for me to edit it a bit more and then send it in again, particularly as my supervisor is going on leave and will not be able to access any additional work I do on the analysis until Monday itself. This means I need to work fast to get the work done. And with the literature review on the back of my mind, I anticipate that I will probably need to stay back a bit later to get more work done (in the coming weeks).

I am beginning to understand now why it is so easy to OT in such jobs, because the work is almost endless and you are handling mutliple projects and meetings at a time. So not only is time management important, but sometimes it is simply not possible to get everything done on time within the 8-9 hours you work a day. Bearing in mind that I am only doing a small part of what everyone else here is doing, I think it is quite amazing that people manage to go home on time, or that they do not become overly stressed about the work here.

I continued doing research (or trying to) to find articles for the literature review. It is truly getting frustrating that I am unable to find articles regarding the elderly and counselling. It makes me wonder how there could be such a serious gap in research literature. As I look at the content and abstracts of the various articles I come across during my article search, I find many of them sound interesting - but many are also too niche, as if they are attempting to look into one particular aspect in a bit to make a name for themselves by taking on such a different area in research. While I do think that niche areas need to be researched, it appears that everyone is so busy trying to find these interesting niche areas that something as "common place" as evaluating the effectiveness of counselling for the elderly becomes neglected and actually becomes obscure (or at least not common place).

And then I find that there are several topics that seem to be over-researched, that I keep seeing as I try to find articles on counselling - things such as counselling elderly with HIV, or with alcohol problems, or even drug use. Which makes me wonder then - are the elderly not the only ones who think that counselling should be left for those with "serious issues"? Are even researchers (and perhaps even practitioners themselves) holding onto the mindset that if you are "okay" or without mental or physical health problems that you do not need counselling? If that is the case, then we might need to not only educate the elderly and the public about the uses for counselling, but even remind researchers and practitioners that counselling can be for everyone, no matter how big or small your problems are, as long as you are in need of a listening ear or a fresh perspective on a problem, or even if you want to improve your interpersonal relationship skills.

Day 25

I continued with the analysis today, and it is almost done! I am still trying to ensure that I have sufficient quotes to support the findings however, as I realise that a lot of what the participants "said" were not really said by them. Instead, they mentioned something, my supervisor helped to reframe it and clarified if this is what they meant to say, and then they agreed with the clarification. While this does give evidence to support our findings, it means that I cannot safely give what that particular participant said or affirmed as it was not spoken by them personally.

However when you think about it, it is true that it is important for the words to come from the client. As the interviewer, very often it is easy for us to be seen as an "authority figure", or for participants to think that because they were fortunate enough to get chosen, for them to want to give answers that will be pleasing to the interviewer, or simply because they want to help our cause. Interviewer bias thus could become a serious problem if we were to take such quotes to represent "what the client said", even if it was truly mere clarification and not coercion at all. Thus we have to be careful to ensure that, for the sake of the credibility of the study and findings generated, that we stick as closely as possible to what the participants themselves said.

To ensure that I do not lag too far behind in my literature review as well, I continued reading some articles and getting the essential parts out of them to collate into my basic summary of journal articles. This is to ensure that when I do begin writing the literature review in its entirety, it will be easier for me to know what important points to take note of, which articles support these points, and also make it much simpler for referencing. The only issue is that as I look at the summary of the articles, I begin to worry that I have insufficient articles for the literature review.

This means that I might have to resort to taking the systematic reviews which I found and use the articles they revewed to hel p"beef up" the review report. This tends to be a "trick" that my friends and I use in university - when we find an article that is useful and good for our asisgnment or research (particularly when we are having trouble finding articles related to our topic or subject), we take note of the references used in the article and search for those articles as well. I am not sure how good or valid or reliable a research method that is )as it could frnakly lead to some bias - since those areticles were chosen to support the initial article and so might not give the full objective picture) but it is a way to get around not having sufficient material for research.

Day 24

Finally finished the analysis for the FGDs! I am quite happy that it is more or less done - now all that is left is to put in the quotes, which will take some restructuring of the report itself (to ensure that the quotes flow and do not "stick out" of the report). I have started worrying about the literature review however because I essentially stopped reading and reviewing articles when I started working on the transcripts and analysis for the FGDs, which is not good as it means I have quite a bit to catch up on. I need to ensure that I finish sorting out the analysis soon so that I can begin sourcing for more articles again, particularly as I know how difficult it is to find articles related to the elderly and counselling.

The network today was very interesting, and I was fortunate enough to be able to listen to all the different speakers share. Hearing about the differnet types of dementia and how the disease affects different parts of the brain was very interesting! It explained how some symptoms turn up in some patients with dementia but not in others, and why some are seen as being "more manageable" than other elderly with dementia. It had not occurred to me that dementia would affect more than one part of the brain as it has so many different symptoms, and how by affecting specific parts of the brain more so than other areas that it would mean that specific symptoms would develop more acutely than other symptoms.

It was also interesting to see them using the A-B-C framework to do with dementia, as it reminded me of CBT, although in a different context. It reminded me that sometimes theories are not merely useful for the specific things they hope to explain, but that we can borrow their frameworks and ways of looking at things and adapt them to new contexts. It was quite enlightening to look at the "antecedents" to problem behaviour not just being the dieasease that affects it, but the environment as well (like if they dont like the activity and are bored they woule act out more than if they were occupied). The way we ourselves act and react towards them can have a huge impat on their behaviour as well, and can actually result in the very consequences we were hoping to avoid initially.

Dementia has always scared me, both in terms of what if my parents get it (as I do not know how I would cope being a caregiver, given mine and my brother's potential working hours, reluctance to get a maid, and potentially not being able to cope with work and care), and also in terms of what if I get it. I do not like the thought of not being able to control my mind; losing control of the body is very scary as well, but at least you can help to strengthen it, prevent itm and it is relatively simpler to treat the body. Losing control of the mind is something I fell i would have less control over somehow - in addition to the fact that the mind controls the body and so many other things (so in all likelihood if the mind goes, the body will too - but not necessarily vice versa). Without the body, you can still think, talk, interact with people. However, if you lose the mind, you cannot do so much, and cannot think straight. This is when it would be easy to become a burden to others, as when you cannot think for yourself, others have to constantly think for you. This is something I would not want for myself, as losing your ability to think is almost akin to losing who you are as a person in fact.

Watching the elderly perform also reminded me of the time I helped to conduct a practise research at SAGE toa payoh last year, where we worked with the elderly for 12 weeks to put up a miniature performance. It was a little like reminiscence work in the sense that we tapped on their memories about the past and and asked them toe reflect regularly. So for me, to be able to see the final product of a programme that was run for a much longer period was intersting. I must say that the actors were very good, and the play was relevant in terms of the issues it raised - they were easy to identify with and would be good for an audience of all ages.

This makes me begin to wonder if it would be possible to do something similar with movement. I can see why eldelry would hesitate when it comes to movement because it is something that can easily highlight their frailty, and possibly show up their inability to do certain things (due to wear and tear with age). But given how the elderly are so active in the community clubs in activities like chinese dance and ballroom dance, I am sure that there is a away to do movement expression with the elderly as well! This is something for me to think about, particularly given my interest and intention to go into dance, and what with the aging population in Singapore, this could be a new need (either a service gap or a market opportunity) for me to look into.

Day 23

I am finishing up the analysis today! Have finally combined both the service and non-service user FGD analyses, grouping them together under the headings I finally managed to come up with for the overarching themes. However I will need to ensure that the phrasing of the words is analytical so that it does not become a mere fact-finding report, which will be important. This is particularly so as there is so much data to report and include. I also will need to make sure that I do not become too "long-winded" in my report as that is something that I tend to do in my assignments in general as well.





I also need to examine the structure of the report, to figure out how to place the various themes (to ensure that there is a logical flow in the report), and also how to "blend" or meld the two different groups of participants together. As of now this is a bit difficult, partly because I think I am trying ti find a way to make it such that I do not have to do too much rephrasing (or actual rewriting on the whole). This might be quite difficult however as I would need to make it an entire and cohesive report, as this is one FGD series, rather than two separate ones.





Another consideration I need to keep in mind is that each "theme" has several "subthemes", which I will need to make clear during the report. However, I am as yet unsure if I should put headings for these subthemes, or leave everything under singular main themes. There are pros and cons to both; personally, I just worry that it might be a bit choppy if there are headings for all the subthemes as well. For now though it really is about the phrasing and "converting" what I have on hand from a basic summary to an analysis.





Soon I will have to start looking at what quotes I could use to substantiate the findings in the report, and I have to ensure that there are sufficient quote from all the FGDs if possible, balancing between the service and non-service users. This is important as I want to pick out the quotes that best represent the findings and the implications as such. Thankfully I can make use of multiple quotes, to give a more wholistic and substantial foundation to build the report findings on.





I also am beginning to realise that when I start getting into this sort of work (to do with actual crafting of reviews and reports) that it is very easy to lose track of time, and to not attempt to go deeper in terms of my reflections (whether it is while doing work itself or after work). Interestingly I did not anticipate this until I started trying to write my journal reflections - then I realise that I was beginning to get stuck.





I think that this is truly what happens when we start getting involved in work, as we get lost in the flow of work that keeps coming in we forget (so often) to stop and reflect about what we are doing, why we are doing it, and the implications this can have both for ourselves, our clients, and the social work sector as a whole. This could actually limit how far we can push ourselves and the sector, as reflections actually do help us to gain deeper and fresher perspectives, allowing us to look at what we are doing again and giving our minds the space to fully absorb what is happening and generate better ideas and thoughts that we can build on.





I wonder if it would be possible to set aside 15 minutes at the end of the work day for workers to reflect on things that happened during the day? Although it might be seen as a chore for people to have to spend the last 15 minutes or so at work to think deep, as it would be easier to merely drift off into space and let the mind "rest" and "blank out".