Sem: AY20/21 Semester 1
Lecturer: Dr Sylvia Mun
*note: classes were conducted over Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Overview: Wasn’t sure about what to expect for this mod because there weren’t any reviews online and this is Dr Sylvia’s first time teaching this mod, but decided to take it especially since healthcare issues have come to light in the midst of the COVID pandemic. The first half of the mod was geared towards building our foundations in health behavior and medical social work theories, as well as important pieces of healthcare legislation and financing schemes (think Medisave and Medishield). For social work students, parts of the theoretical portion should already be quite familiar to you as these are basically social work theories, but there are also quite a number of new theories that are more specific to the healthcare setting. Dr Sylvia does quite a good job in explaining these theories during lectures and she’s open to questions, so no worries if you don’t understand the readings. From W7 onwards, we learnt about social work roles in the different types of healthcare settings (primary care being just one of them), and we were really fortunate to have different guest lecturers who actually worked in these fields to share with us their experiences and the places they worked in.
Dr Sylvia is someone who’s really passionate about what she does and brings with her decades of experience as a medical social worker. Apparently she’s the deputy director of allied health in one of the major hospitals in Singapore as well. She would share anecdotes of her experiences with clients that can often be really sad and heartbreaking. This really drove home the point that medical social work as a profession is one where real lives are often at stake, and these are actual individuals being affected by government policies. For a pol sci student like me, we often look at things from the perspective of political leaders and the state, but we seldom study how things are like from the individual’s point of view, which is equally important as well. Readings can be on the heavy side but there were also some weeks (particularly at the second half of the sem) where there were no readings at all. Would recommend this mod for social work students who aspire to work in medical settings after graduation (heard that there’s a shortage of medical social workers at the moment), or just anyone who wants to have a greater understanding of healthcare issues in Singapore.
Assessment:
Tutorial Participation (20%): Dr Sylvia was my tutor. Each tutorial session focused on a case study based on actual cases that Dr Sylvia has worked with over the years and there were some guiding questions that we had to prep before coming for class. We would discuss these questions in our breakout rooms before sharing our points to the rest of the class. It was quite interesting to listen to how different people can approach the same case in different ways and it really exemplifies how there is no one perfect answer when it comes to working with clients in social work.
Reflection Essay (20%): A 1.5k word essay that requires you to research and critically appraise any of the given topics associated with MSWs and/or their clients. They could range from anything from healthcare policies to how the work of MSWs contribute to the overall healthcare landscape in Singapore. I guess the challenge for this is being succinct in your work given the tight word count. Also, being a social work mod, it is definitely a must to include your personal thoughts while backing them up with concrete examples in order to do well.
Group Project (30%): This was definitely the major highlight of this module. Each group was assigned an actual MSW to interview for us to get first-hand insights into MSWs’ roles and responsibilities in their respective healthcare organisations, as well as better understand the health condition/policy that the MSW manages. The MSW we interviewed was really up there and gave us many insights regarding the work she does in dementia care for her community hospital. The anecdotes she shared regarding her interactions with dementia patients and their families were also very heartwarming, and it was touching to see someone being so passionate about the work they do. Was really fortunate to get a good group for this project too. Even though we didn’t get to meet in real life, we worked well together over Zoom and would chit chat about all kinds of stuff while crafting the interview questions and finishing the group report. Legit one of the group meetings I continued looking forward to despite the Zoom fatigue halfway through the sem :’)
Final Essay (30%): A 3k word essay, divided into 3 questions, based on a case study. In fact, the format was really similar to the stuff covered in tutorials so it felt more like a take-home exam than an actual academic paper. Of course, you have to cite and all but if you’ve been paying attention during tutorials this assignment should be relatively manageable for you.