Day 6

I finally started transcribing the FGD discussions today, and discovered that it would not be as easy as I had hoped (or thought). The sound of the session can get quite unclear at times, and when the voices overlap it's almost impossible to differentiate who is saying what, or what is being said at all. Then there is of course translating it from Chinese to English, which takes some time for me as I want to make sure that I am as accurate as possible and stick as faithfully to what they have said in order to make sure that nothing is lost in translation. Sometimes I find myself rephrasing and rephrasing what I type to make it as "perfect" as possible.

Then of course there is the need to keep replaying certain parts of the discussion in order to get all the information out, particularly parts where I cannot hear the speaker properly. This means that sometimes it can take 10 minutes to get just 1-2 minutes of the discussion recorded accurately.

When it comes to such situations, I am glad that I took notes during the FGDs so that I can match what is being said to the speaker, and so I can more accurately "decipher" what is being said. Initially I had wondered about the necessity for note-taking, but now I wholeheartedly agree with doing so. It would be quite daunting to attempt to transcribe the FGD without the notes.

On the side of conducting the literature review, I am still finding it extremely difficult to find anything counselling-related to the elderly. While even a general search in google for counselling in general turns up several articles (and even more so in the specific counselling/psychology journals), when I do a search for counselling for the elderly or older adults almost nothing comes up. Instead, I see an overemphasis on health and medical journal articles about helping them cope with specific diseases or getting them to be faithful in taking their medications.

This makes me wonder if there is too much of a focus on the physical health of the elderly, with a lack of considering the holistic well-being of the older adult in terms of their mental but particularly their social/emotional health and well-being. It feels almost as if they think of growing old as a disease that needs to be managed and taken care of rather than seeing them as older versions of ourselves - meaning that whatever needs we have now, we are likely to still have in the future, just to a varying degree. If we feel the need for our socio-emotional needs to be attended to now, then we cannot expect those needs to magically disappear or to become less important when we get older.

The problem lies then in getting the various professions (such as doctors, psychologists, social workers, etc.) to begin to place a more holistic emphasis on the older adult and to take a professional stand that physical health is not the be all and end all to consider. While social workers might acknowledge this, we somehow are hesitant to do much research into this relatively unpopular aspect of the population. As for doctors, they would still be more likely to focus on "fixing" their physical health problems first, followed by any mental health disorders - socio-emotional issues tend to be followed up on last, and typically in relation to an adequate "care plan" being in place for the elderly instead.

In the Singapore context, this might mean that the ministry might have to take a stronger stand about the need for the elderly's psycho-socio-emotional health to be considered as a top priority alongside physical health. It might also mean that social workers (medical social workers in particular) would have to consistently work with doctors (and educate them) towards a more holistic view of the patient. This latter aspect is of particular importance as it would affect the groundwork, which is where the client/patient would feel the difference the most.

The question this begs then, is if we as social workers are ready to advocate for our clients as such, and if at the more macro level if we are willing to use research as a means for advocating for clients (by showing that effective interventions that help with their socio-emotional well-being also affect their overall health and wellness, including the physical aspect).