irememberSocialService by James Wong

People love good stories. Especially ones that bring back fond memories of times gone by, on which dreams of a more meaningful future could be founded on. And so I figured if I could reflect on how I was ‘called’ into social service, and if writing about it could somehow, someday, inspire others to make it their personal mission to help those in need, then this article will not be written in vain. I suppose it was because of my HR work in an international bank in the 80’s when I first experienced a desire to help others in a more significant manner. Later, in the 90’s, my mother and father had age-related health issues. Dad had had part of his stomach removed due to cancer, had frequent fits and other symptoms of emphysema, which is a respiratory disease that causes a decrease in his lung function; in my father’s case the direct result of long years of heavy smoking. Fortunately, mom looked after him night and day like the ‘Lady with the Lamp”, a veritable Florence Nightingale. Sadly though, mom suddenly passed away from cardiac arrest, and the care of my dad immediately passed on to me. I was then in a regional manager’s role and my conscience pointed me towards a different type of work, to a vocation where I could do something more for others, like I did for my parents – though I feel I would have liked to have done more for them. Was it a coincidence when good friends suggested I apply for a vacant ED post at Family Life Society twelve years ago? Anyway, my best ‘consultant’ (my wife, of course, who probably thought that this was divine intervention as she then probably had a wish that I had a local job) encouraged me to go for it. I did, and that’s how I went first into the family and youth sector, promoting family education, counselling and care programmes. This first experience in the social service sector made me look at the world quite differently. In a way I had a culture shock, coming from the commercial sector where much of the work is profit-oriented and highly-competitive, and companies want to beat everyone else in everything they do. Not that these objectives are inappropriate, but in the social service, values like genuine care and support, and clients being at the centre and benefiting eventually from everything we do, are at the centre of what we are here for. I learnt that “we cannot do great things on this Earth, only small things with great love” (Mother Teresa), that I need to have patience in advocacy, commitment to mission, passion for the work involved, and genuine concern for the people I serve. And so I made it a personal goal to give back to society all the blessings that I had received in the 30 years I had been in the commercial world, especially whatever experience I could contribute in helping develop the mission and strategies of social service organisations. In turn, I began to experience the joy that comes from knowing you have made a difference in the lives of those you sincerely reach out to. This helped me understand more of who I am and my role in life’s unfolding drama. I had always believed that it is up to me to be the best I can be for others, and so in 2006 I took a year’s sabbatical to go for a Master in Social Work (Counselling) course. This was to appreciate human behaviour better, what drives us to be motivated or otherwise, and what we can do to help others. It was worth the time, effort and expense, especially the attachment to Adam Road Hospital, which provides psychiatric and psychological services, under the tutelage of Dr Ken Ung its senior consultant, child and adult psychiatrist and psychotherapist. I was offered a job as Executive Director of the Spastic Children’s Association as soon as I graduated with the Masters, and served there for almost four years. Again I benefited from witnessing the ‘never-give-up’ spirit of determined children, though wracked with cerebral palsy, and the amazing love shown by parents and caregivers in caring for them and facilitating their recovery with the most important of all factors, love and compassion. And there was hardly an occasion when a visitor would go away from a tour of Cerebral Palsy Centre in Pasir Ris without being touched by the wonderful sight of staff and caregivers attending to each and every child, the bonds between them so evident in their personal interaction. It was truly a privilege to be selected in 2009 by the Tote Board and NCSS to go to Harvard for a business course, “Strategic Perspectives in Non-Profit Management”, which helped improve specific competencies. The only requirement from sponsors was that I serve the social service sector in Singapore as a resource person for two years, a commitment I was more than happy to make, even for more than two years, because I had already decided to devote the rest of my life to, in the words of Mr Willie Cheng, a person I’ve always admired, “doing good, well.” And so I moved on in Aug 2010 to my current work in the Singapore Association for Mental Health, to a mission so important to every one of us in Singapore and elsewhere, working side by side with the Executive Director who has inspired me with her passion for helping our clients. It is a mission that has been to some extent overlooked by society in the past but is now deservedly gaining more attention: the importance of mental health and preventing mental illness in our lives; providing professional care to clients; reducing misconceptions and stigma surrounding mental illness. I continue to be blessed with the privilege of being able to live my life out the way I have always wished, to gladly give back to society and especially to those less fortunate…happily painting a picture of a brook, trees and several birds in flight I know is therapeutic for the client who loves to paint, but it is also therapeutic for me as well. And I hope that many more will choose this “Road less travelled’ (M. Scott Peck), one such road that will certainly make a difference to many, including the traveller who chooses to walk along it, not alone but with others.