Social Work Spotlight - Episode 59: Mohammad

Episode Date: June 10, 2022

In this episode I speak with Mohammad, a Bangladeshi Australian who is passionate about and committed to working with people with disability and mental health concerns, aiming to ensure social justice and human rights in all aspect of a person's life. Currently Mohammad works as a Support Coordinator for the Department of Human Services, helping to provide information, support and advocacy for people to access the NDIS.Links to resources mentioned in this week’s episode:AASW and the NDIS - https://www.aasw.asn.au/practitioner-resources/national-disability-insurance-schemeNational Disability Insurance Scheme - https://www.ndis.gov.au/NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission - https://www.ndiscommission.gov.au/Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission - https://www.agedcarequality.gov.au/about-usDisability Support Guide - https://www.disabilitysupportguide.com.au/Summer Foundation NDIS resources - https://www.summerfoundation.org.au/our-resources/our-library/This episode's transcript can be viewed here:https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lzUHv-Y9V-NlQuhPBLAVpvxEAs_K7WNJCfk2KEjg9oM/edit?usp=sharingThanks to Kevin Macleod of incompetech.com for our theme music.

Hi and welcome to Social Work Spotlight where I showcase different areas of the profession each episode. I'm your host, Yasme McKee Wright, and today's guest is Muhammad, a Bangladeshi Australian who migrated from Bangladesh in 2011. Muhammad is passionate about and committed to working with people with disability and mental health concerns, aiming to ensure social justice and human rights in all aspects of a person's life. He works to identify barriers in policy about equality, accessibility, including, equity, choice and control, informed decision-making, and to support systemic improvement with a view to improve a person's quality of life. Thank you so much, Mohamed, for coming on to the podcast.

I'm very glad that you could take the time to do this, and I'm really excited to hear about your social work journey so far. Thank you, Yasmin. It's a great privilege and honor for me to attend this interview, and I'd like to thank you, express my gratitude to you, and express my gratitude. due to the listener. So I would like to share my social work journey. Why did I choose to become a social worker? And my journey, knowledge and experiences, I think is really great. I would like to able to motivate other people to come into the social workspace. It's really a very powerful

scope and atmosphere to make a positive change in someone's life. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me in this interview. Thank you as well. that's probably a great place to start. So when did you start working as a social worker and what drew you to the profession? So I would like to go to some background information. So I have migrated in Australia in 2011. Before coming here, I have completed bachelor with honors and masters in social sciences. My major was anthropology. So anthropology is the scientific study of men and his culture. So I have actually, since my childhood, I have a great interest to support people to know about the individual family, structure of the family, how a community runs and function, society, culture.

I think all these equipment and tools is really important to be successful as a social worker, which field you are working no matter. but I feel like this is all the background skills, knowledge you require to be a successful and to make a positive chance, to make advocacy for people, especially for vulnerable people. So that social science theories, a lot of theories we know around. So if we have good understanding and knowledge on all of these theories, it will help me to shape my understanding about a person, society, family, community. So I feel like it's a very important tool that you need to be aware before becoming a social worker.

And it's such a close field in terms of anthropology and sociology. You deal with so many of the same concepts like systems and society, and that would have given you a very good basis for then studying social. And I understand in Bangladesh, the Bengali Association of Social Work is quite small. It's still quite a newer association compared to Australia. We've got, I think, more than 16,000 members, and the Bengali one is maybe around 1,200. How does social work as a concept happen in Bangladesh? Did you find it very different or is it very similar?

Actually, yes, it's different from the application context. Realistically, Bangladesh is doing well, but still a lot of fallbacks and a lot of background work has to be done to make a social work a great tool, a weapon to make a positive change, to make a change into the policy level. I feel like this is the struggling area that the current social worker. in Bangladesh has to contribute, how they contribute to the change of the policy level and how to reach in that level. So I know as a social worker, we have been working with system. Often we question to the system, we question to the policy to make it accessible, inclusive for vulnerable people. Especially, I would say, how we can approach as a social worker with the system on behalf of the vulnerable people to get access into the housing. You know,

accommodation is a vital thing for a human being because if you have a roof over your head, you can sleep good at night. If not, it will impact you both physically and mentally. So mental health issues and accessing to accommodation, then other basic human things will becomes a basic human rights, like right to have treatment, right to have an employment, right to have other resources. So ordinary people are struggling to access in all of that area, whereas vulnerable people, there is no question. They are beyond of that. So we know, according to United Nations, human rights definition and declaration for the people with disability and for the people with mental health,

they must have the equal rights to enjoy their life and everything like other ordinary people in our society. So the basic difference is that in Australia, we have that structure and we have that opportunity to argue, advocate with the system, asking a question to the system and support them to modify and how to make the policy more inclusive for the people.

So there will be no discrimination based on race, culture, religion, gender, sexuality, whatever it is. But in Bangladesh, we have a lot of policy by paper in writing. But in practically, it is really hard for the social workers there to ask the question to the system to identify the barrier. In some word, they're able to identify barrier, but they are unable to reach that barrier to that sense. system who need to listen and act upon quickly, proactively to make the system change so that they can make it more accessible for the vulnerable people and the general people. It's been improving a lot, but still I think, I feel like there is a lot of difference if we consider the context and the background of both countries. So this is the difference. I would like to draw a simple example.

country in Bangladesh, if you want to get a government job, you need to get this job by 30 years of age. And when you cross 30 years of age, you are not able to apply for a government job, which I feel a complete violation of human rights. It's a complete discrimination with the people. Because I feel like to get an employment is everyone's right, no matter it is a private job or it is a power. public job, even in the private job as well, to gain some position, you need to apply before 30. And there are a lot of circumbaria that because of the session jam into the university, student has to spend more than times that actually they expect it. Normally a bachelor is four years and a master's program is one year in Bangladesh. but it takes seven to eight years on an average to complete the bachelor with honors and master's

program and then maybe they have some very limited time to apply for the government job and I know a lot of people over the 30 they have lost that opportunity to apply for a government job I feel like this is a complete violation this is a discrimination with those people so that kind of things accommodation, a lot of people are homeless and practically some people are trying from the government perspective they are demonstrating they are doing something but if we talk about the sustainable development and long-term accommodation support I feel like there is no improvement very slow progress but all of this area so I'm talking about the basic human rights to get a treatment you need to have someone very powerful in the hospital to get a hospital bed and the public

hospitals, quality of service delivery is at question. So everyone is not treated equally. Some people who has a relationship with the doctor who has a connection from the high official, they are receiving good comfort and care in the hospital. But most of the people are coming from the lower socioeconomic background. They do not have any connection in the hospital. So they are most vulnerable in the hospital. So this is the another complete violation of getting access to basic human rights. They are improving, but I feel like it takes long time for the social worker. They need to equip with proper qualification, skill,

and they need to reach to the higher level, make that people, make that system to listen to them, and make appropriate modification, clarification, clarification and alteration into the policy level so that these vulnerable people can get access in different, they should treat it indifferently. They should have that accessibility, inclusiveness into the system, no matter anything. Were the roles that you were employed in Bangladesh, were they government or non-government?

Yes. So after graduating from anthropology, I was very lucky to gain an employment with a government self-autonomous body. This is called Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority. So I feel like you may be aware that Bangladesh is very popular for the garment manufacturing. So a lot of industry is in Bangladesh, the people working into the garment sector, manufacturing a lot of garments for the first world countries, especially. USA is the big market, then Australia, Canada, all the first world countries. But the people working in that garment industry are highly vulnerable.

They're not getting standard salary end of the month. Their nutrition, their human rights, their quality of life has been compromised and is a great question. So I have been employed in a position to support these people to improve their sustainability of the job, to improve their salary, to improve their nutritional aspect of their health. so that if you are very poor and weak, how you can be a good worker and how you can do a productive work. So to increase the productivity of the worker, eating healthy food is really important. Using health sanitation is really important. Where actually we have seen that and evident that actually people do not have that kind of

access because they are poor. The money they have receiving as a salary end of the month is not actually well enough to purchase all of this equipment. So I was doing a job like an industrial counselor. My role was to support and liason and mediate between both owner and the workers of the industry so that everyone is happy in one position. They can get their salary on time end of the month because the project was funded by DFID and World Bank. So we have documentation requirement, we submit a monthly report to World Bank so that they are aware about the progress of the project. The goal was to improve the quality of life of these workers working into the industry. So that's what I have come from. So I have provided them financial counseling,

grief and loss counseling, support them to build their capacity into their productivity, personal life, how to become more productive worker into the industry, healthy life, sanitation, pure drinking water. So all of this area successfully. And then actually I thought that I can migrate to Australia to become something more that is the reason for a better future and to equip myself with more knowledge, skills so that I can advocate for the vulnerable people. I can empower them in their personal life and into their professional life.

into their family life. So how to question the system, how to put my influence onto them so that someone can listen and take appropriate action to change, to bring positive changes in these people's life.

So I feel like that was my role in Bangladesh. When I was childhood, before doing anything, I just tried to explain and clarify my personality. So I feel like whatever a social worker, should have to be a successful social worker, the skills, values, and ethics, I feel like I have most of them.

I'm very empathic to other people, listen very well to other people rather than talking too much, then I feel like I'm very honest. Professional integrity is one of the social workers great value. I feel like this is fantastic in me. I have resiliency. So I'm not a person like who can get angry instantly, who can react it angrily. So I feel like all of these skills I have inbuilt. Since my childhood, I have observed. I have this kind of qualities, attributes in my character that is perfectly suitable to be a social worker. I like to help people listen to them, empower them, advocate them with the system. So supporting mentality to the vulnerable people, listening to them and a thought process how to support them, I think is my great strength and

align with the social work skills. And definitely ethics comes along the way as a social worker, how we can respect our participant, how we can support in their self-determination, how we can advocacy and enable them, empower them. So from the ethical perspectives, So I have gained. I feel like this is in my personality, number one. And number two, I like to draw my family background as well. So I have actually seen hard, informed and evident of my granddad, my grandma, my dad and my uncles and aunties as well. Because we live in a small town, a small country town in Bangladesh. And it's really hard when you are living in a country town and to pick out and to advocate for the mass people, especially getting accessibility into the service, bring good project into the locality so that people can get the service required. So basic human rights support, like access to the water, access to the sanitation. So I have seen that my granddad, my grandma, they have done a lot of community work,

community services work and community development task in our locality. So I've seen when I was child, oh, my dad is doing that organized country people. Okay, we need to discuss this. We need to raise this question to the local MPs or local structure, systemic structure. How can we get that for the betterment of all these people in the countryside? So I have that family background. I have seen and I have learned how to do that. This was also helpful to become a social worker because I feel like I will be successful in this role because my personal attributes, skills, my qualification and the family history is really influential and motivate me to become a social worker. And then other things influence me actually to become a social worker, systemic barrier. and the discrimination people has faced on daily basis in our country. It was a great concern to me. I have been always thinking how to support the vulnerable people, the ordinary people. So I'm not talking

about the people with disability and people with mental health issues. They are still fall behind because the general people are not getting access to the mainstream supports, not getting access to the health treatment, accommodation, employment areas, the people with disability and people with mental health are beyond question. So this is the area we need to talk. So I have seen the how system has been creating discrimination, putting barrier into the accessibility, putting barrier into providing choice and control to people's life. There are lack of providing informed decision-making opportunity to people and lack of quality of service delivery, lack of care. So it's been raised in my mind and I felt so sad for all of these people and then started my thinking how I can

become an advocate for these people. So all these thoughts, family influence, personal qualities and attributes actually support me to become a social worker. Yeah, wow. And I can really see that given what you've explained about the system and the way things are structured in Bangladesh, it sounds like that employer that you were with is quite progressive. So they're already interested in an employee's well-being to begin with. So it might be easier to then advocate or to bring up issues as they come up. I feel like that's a pretty special place to have worked. Fantastic. Yeah, that's right.

Some employers are really progressive because they have pressure, from the buyer country. Like all the first rural countries, they have some certain compliance that the local merchandiser has to follow. So as a result of this, getting pressure from them, a lot of provider,

employer at this moment is really dying or keen to implement all the compliance into place so that people can get paid in due time, people can get healthy food from the factory, people can get access to the pure drinking water, people can get access to the treatment from the factory perspectives. So a lot of progress has been actually made and it is ongoing. But I feel like this is only one area, but we have a vast area, unsupervised and unmonitored into the other areas that actually social worker can take lead and negotiate with the system, ask the system question,

and support the system how they can contribute into the policy level so that every basic human rights thing or facilities or opportunities is accessible to those people. And how we can make the system more inclusive so that irrespectively we can support all the people, irrespectively all culture, religion, gender and race. So this is really a great area to improve. So, yeah, that's my observation. Yeah, and similarly, Australia likes to pride itself on its good values and good systems and policies on paper. How did you find that translation from Bangladesh to Australia in terms of being able to really make that difference that you're looking for? Number one, yes, I mean, I would like to emphasis on the listening skills. So in Australia, I feel like I have people in every places, social workers, our individual,

our community, our society, and the government. No matter it is a local government, state government or federal government, the great thing is that everyone is sitting there to listen to and act on that. But on contrary, in Bangladesh, we have a lot of people who are sitting there sitting there. down into the policy level are not ready to listen to people. Right. So that is the basic difference. We have good structure in Australia in every scope and every areas.

But we do not have that recognized structure in Bangladeshi system so that the system will listen to people. So this is the basic difference I feel like between Bangladesh and Australia. when you don't want to listen, you will not able to make a positive change in people's life. You will not able to bring the best outcome for the people. But you need to listen first. That is the basic difference between Bangladesh and the Australian structure. Yeah.

And what is your role in Australia now? What are you working on? When I migrated in Australia, I completed a certificate for in community services work. I have seen actually, and people with disability and people with mental health issues are still discriminated in regards to accessing the service, in regards to get the link with proper resources, and in regards to their self-empowered, self-determination, choice and control still I feel like we have a lot to do to realistically, pragmatically apply this. So then when I have seen that, I feel like, okay, I need to do a social work qualification. I need to equip myself with that theory, knowledge, and skills so that I can contribute in this industry and can advocate for these people. This is the reason that I choose to go to uni and have completed my master's in social work. And I feel like I'm not completely, it is a continuous process, but I feel like for the time,

I'm equipped with required qualification, required skills, knowledge, so that I can make a positive difference in these people's life. As a result of this, actually, I have started my career as a specialist support coordinator. So I used to, not used to, still working in the NDIS space. You know, we have currently 500,000 NDIS participant, especially most of them has two kind of psychosocial disability. Some of them has physical disability. Some of them have mental health issues. That is we call psychosocial disability. I feel like in the industry, we have a lot of NDIS provider in the market, but still we have a lot of space to improve considering quality service delivery, quality customer service, then advocate for these people with NDIS so that they can get appropriate

funding for their support to make their life more functional. The choice and control, by paper, we have this. I know a lot of providers and professionals are applying or providing this opportunity to participate. But along with that, it is also true that a lot of providers or practitioners still compromising with this choice and control. Often the participants said, oh, no, I don't know. They have only given me one choice. Whereas actually, ideally, we need to provide them three choices. And whenever we provide them any choice, we need to explain the pros and cons of that choices so that a participant can make an informed decision. It is really important in this industry because we are working with them to make them empowered to increase their capacity in their

average daily life in their social life, in their community life. So we know that according to United Nations Disability definition, they have described that every people with disability has the same right to enjoy the life like other people enjoys in our society. I feel like all this industry and other things that are quality of service delivery, providing them choice and control, informed decision making accessibility to the services is really a another important area we need to work on. It's been improved, but I feel like a lot of improvement required in this area. Every stadium, every facility has to be disability inclusive. And we know people with mental health issues, they have a lot of things going on there.

So are we really listening to them? Are we really providing them that choice and control so that they can lead a functional life? I think we are improving, but we still, a lot of scope to improve in this area. So feeling all of these things, actually, I have started as a specialist support coordinator, working in the NDI space. And I feel like I believe in the continuous improvement as a professional. You know, we have all self-reflection, end of the day, what I have done and how I can do this in different ways and ability to think outside of the box, how to support this

participant to increase their capacity, to empower them, to provide them a good life so that they can fulfill, contribute to the community like other people in our community. So considering all of these things, actually, I started my position as a social worker and a specialist support coordinator. And along the way, after almost two years performing their job, I have changed my role currently. So currently, I have come into the government space. I feel like it is really great opportunity and scope for me to ask a question to the system, identify the barrier, gap, and report this to the state government so that they can take appropriate action. I'm very happy to share with you, Yasmin, that I'm working currently with the system,

and I have been able to identify a lot of systemic gap, and we have already reported that to state government, Especially, I feel like you are aware that the accommodation for people with disability has a severe crisis into the community. Okay. So from the state government perspective, so whenever we start exploring a suitable house for people with disability, we're struggling to spot a suitable accommodation. Like if a person is requiring a bariatric wheelchair accessible property, it's really hard. you will not get a single one out of 100. Yes. Because, like, as an example, I would like to draw here,

the normal ordinary house, the front or rear door, they have wide of that door is 7.5 m.m. But when a participant is requiring to use a wheelchair, the property has to be a wheelchair accessible. And the door wide has to be 8.5 mm. And some people have behavior of concern. Some people require accessible property. which is actually really scurts into the community.

And we are struggling and fighting and negotiating with state-operated housing authority to explore more opportunities to provide appropriate housing to people with disability. And they are struggling as well because they say that we don't have actually data, qualitative and quantitative data so that we can make a decision based on this. So in this space where my current role is to inform the state government the scarcity of this kind of accommodation in the community and to report them. So we are doing qualitative and quantitative research along the way and provided this data to well-being essay to state government. And some action has been already taken. So improvement has started begun there.

So this is really an interesting area for me. I feel like we are able to identify a lot of gaps into the policy, into the framework, quality service delivery. So it's really great place for me at this moment. The wish and dream I used to have since my childhood that able to advocate for these people as I'm doing right now. I'm not 100% successful, but I feel like people are ready to listen to me. I need to work onto the baseline to identify this kind of barrier.

and report to state government. And that is one of our KPI. That sounds so satisfying and such a good use of your skills. But I'm curious as to what some of your recommendations might be. Would it be more practical to request that some of the stock of housing is modified or would it be to try to purchase more low-cost housing? Like what kind of things can you suggest to the government? I feel like Yasmin, based on my observation, I would like to recommend to build a lot of cluster type of housing. What other challenges? Often when we discuss with people about their preferences of housing, often they share their ideas with us that they want to live alone with support. They don't want to share support with other people. Yeah. So based on these, I think more cluster

type of housing would be appropriate for the state government and federal government to set up for the people with disability and people with mental health. This is my suggestion. Cluster-based housing is really good option. And we can keep other options as well, like SDA, specialist disability accommodation and the SIL house. SIL house could be common community houses okay, but people with high support needs is required that kind of cluster housing system. And SDA, fully accessible, robust kind of accommodation is the demand of time at this moment for the government to consider. And really, there's a great scarcity of this kind of accommodation into the community. And especially in like metropolitan areas where there's not a lot of space, it's really hard

to build some of these properties. That would be forcing people with a disability further and further from the center of the cities and further away from the specialists and the services that they need to be accessing. So you're kind of, you know, you're fighting a losing battle sometimes there. Yes, but still they're dissoning. I think. I feel like I would like to mention here that the progress has been made. Some community providers, I know a lot of community housing provider started building cluster type of accommodation into the countryside area. So in South Australia, up to Gowler and beyond the Gowler, community housing providers

are already started building cluster type of accommodation and SDA type of accommodation. But it's really hard, especially when we consider the metropolitan area. I know Department of Human Services has taken some initiative to start building this kind of cluster housing. And one project I feel like is going to finish soon, and that is going to offer to people with disability and mental health. So progress has been made, but we need more. And that is the reason we require more support from the federal government and state government perspectives. But the progress has been made. I'm happy in this area.

So no matter the progress, it is small or big, the important thing is that we are progressing towards achieving that goal. The progression is really important rather than static in one position. And do you have an opportunity to work with many other social workers or to supervise social workers in the role that you're in? Yes, I'm very lucky in this role. My manager is a social worker. My senior manager is a social worker. And three of my other colleagues who are also social workers. We are a social worker and we are a specialist support coordinator as well. Everyone has brought up different qualities, attributes, skills, knowledge and qualification into this role, which is really transferable and we are learning from each other. My current manager is really

fabulous. I would like to acknowledge actually some of my community brothers who are leader at this moment into the state government. We have been learned a lot of things from them. My heartful gratitude to my current manager, Rebecca Plama, my community brother, Mr. Mohamal Tariq, and my colleague. So it's really interesting how we learn from each other. So every morning, we run a huddle, which is we call team meeting. So we actually review the previous day, we have worked, the goal we have set up, how many of them we have achieved, or how many of them we are in a progress. And you know, some inpatient or participant. we receive very complex. So like if I have any complex one, I discuss the case study with my other

colleagues and seek advice from them, any suggestion, everyone shared their suggestion, even including my professional practice. I am always very open to my feedback. So always encourage my participant, care, our families, and the other professionals. So we work with multi-agency and interdisciplinary team. Every time I seek, what do you think? What I have done is that okay or do you have any observation or suggestion for me? So always I'm ready to take the feedback and act on this. I think if you want to become a good social worker, you need to be self-reflected professional and believe in the ongoing professional improvement.

So without feedback, it is really hard to become a successful or good social worker. I often stated to my participant, no matter if you feel angry with me and frustrated for any of my correspondent, let me know. Yeah, it doesn't affect your any quality of service delivery, but it will help me to be a better practitioner. So just open-minded to receive the feedback from your teammates, from your other colleagues and from your participant is a really good way to reflect on your practice and act on this quickly. I think that's a really wonderful way of reducing the power discrepancy that's there. Like if you're saying I'm not the expert necessarily, tell me how this is going to affect you. The fact that you're opening that discussion and encouraging your participants to come to you with suggestions or feedback, I think is a really good sign of a reflective social worker who will really listen to someone's needs.

So that's really lovely to hear. And it sounds like the rest of your team really encouraged that as well. Yeah. So we believe in the collaborative practice, respect each other, is really important when you work in a team, value other people's opinion, welcome other people's suggestion. And to work on this is really, I think, some of the great skills to become. Because when you're working in a team, it's not your individual mission. It's a team mission. If you are successful as a team, you are successful as an individual.

So the most important thing that value your teammates, work with them collaboratively, and action this and achieve the goals. That's how a team makes a successful one. It sounds as though quite an important part of your role is also being developing relationships and networks with services and supports that are out there in order to, like if you have a good understanding of the services and the options, you can then support the participant to make that decision. You mentioned earlier there were maybe three options. So how on earth are they going to be able to make that decision? So you've been able to explain the pros and the cons of each.

Yes, and I feel like this is really important. I would like to mention here some other things. So we are working with multi-agency. As a specialist support coordinator, you need to often liazon with the office of the public advocate. You need to liaison with NDIS, NDAS Safeguard and Quality Commission, AIS Care Quality and Safeguard Commission. You need to work with the local AKAT team. And you need to work with the prison system. You need to work with the drug and alcohol system. You need to work with the rehab services system. You need to work with the child protection system. So we are working and liaison with all of these providers to bring the best outcome for the participant. I think it's really important. You need to have this kind of knowledge and understanding how

each of this organization work and how do they provide quality, service and supports to NDI's funded participant. So every day, we run these team meetings and after that, actually, we jump onto the follow-ups. If we have any follow-up from the previous day, and it is reflective. into our calendar. So I would like to mention here that as a social worker, current trend, I think evident-based practice is really becoming popular to every spare, including the participant and to the system. So the more we practice evident-based practice, the more our work will be getting value rather than getting someone in the darkness. If you have evidence, how you can do that? Like, you have provided three choices to participate and record that into your case notes.

Simple example of evident-based practice. So this is really important at this moment as a team. We try to provide and apply this evident-based practice in our work. And then often we need to communicate with NDIs and external service provider. You know the external support coordinator working with participant, external OT, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, community support providers. So working with all of these people from which aspect, from strength-based aspect. This is another important thing.

I often mention in our team meeting how we can apply strength-based language when we're talking to our participant and with other professionals. It is really important as a social worker. Often we have seen people feel hard because of the lack of using strength-based language. we can say things differently rather than focusing on the deficit of a participant, rather than focus on the negativity of the participant. If you want, you can reflect the positive words and a strain-based language in your case notes. Often we write something into the case note that later stage when the participant has read the case note,

they feel intimidated. So the way we write the case note is really another important aspect, how to use the strain-based perspective into the case, nor how we can use this into our communication and conversation with other people is really important. We are in a position actually every day. We just try to refresh our mind. Okay, we have learned from our academic qualification, but how we are going to practice and apply this into the practical space.

I think as a special support coordinator, a lot of skills we require. all of us have more or less like coordination skills like organizational skills like how to use the MS Word Excel all of this stuff is really important budgeting skills is really important so participant has a specific budget how you can utilize the fund for a whole year is really another skills for you and keep track on that so that participant is not going to finish their fund before the ending of the plan. So as a specially support coordinator, we are performing daily basis, all of this task. The most important thing that we are also conducting qualitative and quantitative

research to identify the barrier, to identify the gaps into the system, and to inform that documentarily to state government. So this is all of our core responsibilities as a specialist support coordinator from Department of Human Services, along with other things like support participant to link them with external service providers, research community resources for them, research mainstream support for them, identify if they have any new goal in their life, and to reflect that into the next plan review meeting. So all of these things are really important as a specialist support coordinator and as a social worker. I feel like the specialty support coordination role is highly influenced by our social work skills because we have

learned the theory. As I told you at the beginning of this interview, how we are successful and to become a good professional if we do not have good understanding of social theories, social science theories, anthropological theories, social work theories, because all of that are our ground and baseline to understand, explain, and to understand how a person function in their everyday life, how a family function, what things, outside things can impact the individual lives, family lives, social lives and community lives. So everything I would like to suggest everyone to think from micro-mezzo and macro-level. So we have that individual level, then our family level, from the systemic, big, broader system level.

So as a social worker, we need to apply that systemic theory in place. So ecosystem, eco-social work is really becoming popular at this moment. And it really involved, and I really related with the people with disability and people with mental health, when we are going to work with them, we need to understand as a whole person. We must not see them as a part of the system. We need to see them as a whole person, as a person in the whole environment so that we can better support them. Yeah, absolutely. And I agree that that language is so important in our use and application.

But also interesting that you mentioned prisons and age care sectors because we know that people with a disability are overrepresented in a lot of these places. And often that's where we need to target our support. do you have an opportunity to go into prisons or hospitals or age care facilities to support some of these people? Yes, yes, I mean, absolutely. So actually, in my previous role, most of my participants were from prison system. So I went to Yatala Labar Prison, which is located inside the metropolitan area. Besides this, I have a participant from Mount Gambier Prison, a country town, Port Augusta, a country town. So they are big and large prison in the South Australia.

So I didn't visit them, but I used to work from this prison system. And I went to visit face-to-face, actually, some prisoner into the Yaltala Lepar prison. It's really exciting and mostly they are still actually not familiar with the NDIS process. The way we conversate and treat people with disability and mental health, they do not understand. understand how to conversate with those people and how to support them in a positive language, I would say. So mostly the prison people use the prison language rather than using the strength-based and social work language.

So that is the basic difference. And I feel like I was able to involve and build that rapport and trust with prison people so that they can rely on me, they can understand me. And yeah, I have successfully supported a lot of them. And in the hospital, so often we went to hospital to see participant. Hospital has made a lot of progress in regards to working with NDAIS space, but I feel like still a lot of progress has to be made. It is going to be happening in course of time. They are really working hard because, you know, hospital is really a rushy environment.

Hospital social workers are very busy and other clinician and allied health professionals are very busy. So they have less time. They have less time to focus on all these skills and the report writing and other things. That is the reason. It is another barrier as a specialist support coordinator to get an OTE from the hospital who can write a robust functional capacity assessment report. And as a result of this, often we need to hire someone from the community who has experts writing this robust kind of functional capacity report. Another barrier is that hospital does not allow an OT from the community to enter into the hospital because the OT has to be credentialed with the health system. So it takes time.

So a lot of barriers. We have already addressed all of this barrier and progress are coming soon. And as you said, so drug and alcohol and other people. So I'm very lucky that I used to work with various types of NDAS participant who has, multiple diagnosis and issues involved in their life. As a result, they have brought up to me because I have that knowledge and understanding and skills to work with prison people, with rehab people, with hospital people, with child protection people. So this is really an interesting area. Yeah, I was actually talking to another wonderful social worker a couple of episodes ago,

Jerome, who works for the forensic hospital. And he was explaining some of the difficult that people have, those with cognitive disabilities, especially meeting the requirements of the systems. So they can't complete a lot of the treatments or a lot of the group therapy that people are normally expected to comply with. And so they're seen as difficult or behavioral or whatever it might be. So yeah, it's very interesting that you've also had quite a lot of experience with prisons. And as you said, there's a lot of work that needs to be done in informing and, supporting some of the people working there to really see from a different perspective. Absolutely.

Yes, that is right. People need to understand, especially in the prison perspective, how a tricky area is to work with people with intellectual disability. You know, the intellectual disability has been classified by four or five forms, mild intellectuality, severe intellectual disability, moderate intellectual disability, moderate intellectual disability. So under this intellectual disability, different forms and kinds of disability has been diagnosed, which actually other people do not understand. I feel like anyone working in the disability space, they know that actually all disability are not visible. Some disabilities are

invisible. So often I have heard common people criticize the people with intellectual disability. Oh, he's okay. He does not have issues. So why he's getting? and the eyes plan. It's a complete wasting of money. Then actually, I explain, Lou, the way you have seen the people is behaving is not the actual scenario for this person. If you go through his case notes, his reports and diagnosis, you will be understand that he has some kind of intellectual disability. So it's really another important that prison people do not understand all of these things. They said, oh, he's okay, he's doing this thing. He's not complying with the order or blah, blah, blah, blah. thing. So the way they speak with these people, it hurts them mentally and increase their anxiety

and depression level. Yeah. That sounds as though there are a lot of challenges that you deal with, a lot of things that are really difficult in your work. What would you say is the hardest thing to do in your job? What keeps you up at night? I feel like, yes, man, I wish I could bring all the good outcome for my participant. And as part of this, often we communicate with NDIS, liaison with them advocating for the participant. The frustrating is that most of the time we haven't received the recommended fund from NDIS. It's the frustrating. The hard thing is that when we are going to inform this decision to the participant, we know and we evident how they feel. they feel down, demotivated about their life.

They feel like their disability is a curse. It's a crime to have a disability, some kind of thinking. So this is the hardest thing, number one. Number two, from my current experience, I would say, often we have the involvement with the participant. At some point, we are to finish our involvement. Once someone discharged from the hospital, we are no more working with them, generally. But often I have got some people who has requested me to be his support coordinator, to support him.

Often we receive call, whereas I do not have any involvement with this participant. But it's really hard to say them goodbye. Another thing. So also other things that some people stuck in the hospital for long period of days and requested us every day. I, Muhammad, I want to get out from the hospital. Did you get my house? Did you get my house? but as a social worker and as we all have duty of care responsibility, we need to make sure that

wherever we are discharging him, it is a safe discharge and he will be safe in the home with all required support. As long as this is not ensured, we normally do not recommend discharge. But I know because of the systemic barrier and process, we are unable to put suitable accommodation. It takes time. You know, sometimes it takes time. But the participant, I know they are really eager to get out from the hospital. And my hardest part is that when they ring me and ask me for the update. And I had to reply the same update. Oh, it is in process.

We are still working. So like all of this thing. But I wish if I could do this instantly, that would be great. And I always explained my participant, look, I'm happy to run quite a extra mile for you. And as a result, if I can bring something positive to you, that is my happiness. So often I receive a lot of thank you and kind words from my participant, which actually a motivation in my career to become and to strive more. Yeah.

I was actually thinking when you mentioned that you've got your ongoing cases for your team huddle, there would be fewer times when you could say, yes, that's been achieved because some of this stuff takes so long. but there must be some wonderful parts as well, like receiving that feedback from people. What else do you love about the work you're doing? I love feedback and especially when people say good things. We have achieved our target goals. It makes me really happy.

Not only the participants I have mentioned, they are stuck in the hospital because we are waiting for the appropriate funding from NDIS. But I have supported a lot of participants who has got appropriate funding. from NDIS and we have advocated for them. We have strongly raised our voice for them. Some participants, you know, they do not have transport fund. They do not have support coordination fund. Whereas the participant has been supported by a family member who is elderly. We strongly argue with NDIS planner and advocate for the participant. Look, this could be overwhelming for these elderly people. You are aware that elder abuse is another concern. So we need to reduce the burden

from these family members and you need to put support coordination fund into the plan so that someone can take responsibility from this elderly lady to execute the participant and the ice plan. And we have also sometimes requested to put some day option or respite into the core fund area so that participant can go for day option or respite so that care or family member can get some rest. Often this area is overlooked. And I feel like, ignored. So this is really important. And we have achieved all of these good things from NTIS plan and this is a happy ending and people are really happy and provided good feedback for my service and our team service. That's wonderful to hear. Given that you've worked

consistently in the same sort of area of social work since you've been in Australia, are there any other areas of social work that interest you or would you even consider going overseas and working overseas or do you feel like this is where you want to be for a long time? I feel like community development social worker. I mean, it's a great area. Yes, it's a great area to work on if I go to overseas, definitely. And secondly, the hospital social work is another one. You know, most of the people admitted into the hospital, what are they going through

mentally. So social worker is a right person who can support the inpatient, their care, our family members, to feel motivated, strengthened and empowered, it is really important. I feel like I want to work in many areas, but this is the, I feel like, most interesting areas. So community development, community service work, hospital, social work. And another interesting area is that school social work. School social work in Bangladesh comparatively very new. Very few of the school has this kind of facility.

but most of them are not. But I feel like school students require social work support, counseling support, because they are going through a lot of pressure by the school system, their curriculum, and their peers' pressure, family pressure, to become something good and great in life. But how we can apply social work skills and knowledge so that people can be resilient, people can feel motivated, do the things in a motivated way. This is really, I feel like important. area if I consider to go back to my country.

Yeah. And I guess you don't have to leave the country to work in community development. When I first started as a social worker, I was working in community development for an agency that was looking after a lot of Bengali migrants and refugees actually. And there's so much good work that can be done there in terms of supporting settlement or even just building resilience and understanding of services for that sort of community. You are absolutely right. Is there anything else that we haven't mentioned that you'd like to talk about to do with your work or your experience in social work?

Not really. I feel like I have explained a lot of background and area of my passion and the skill required actually to work in this space, knowledge required in this space. So I feel like the listener will be benefited and feel motivated to become a social worker. social work is a very influential role in respect of actually making positive difference in individual's life, in someone's family's life and the community life to make it more functional and advocating for them ensure social justice are ensured inequality. There are no inequality. Social worker are equipped with that tools, skills to combat with any kinds of discrimination any kinds of inequality, accessibility. Social worker has great skills to communicate with other people in the society,

communicate with system through collaboration, through inclusiveness, using the strength-based language, approach, systemic approach, psychodynamic theory, anti-oppressive practice, anti-racism practice. So it's a great profession, I would say, working with people to make a positive difference is their life, It's a different kind of place that you will receive. And any positive word feedback from your client or participant, it's an eternal place that I would say to be a social worker

and to support someone when they need it most. Yeah, it is incredibly rewarding. And your background, your anthropological perspectives and your training combined with your existing skills and your values and your ethics like you were explaining before, I think provide such a good application for not just social work, but for the work you're doing now in terms of the NDIS support coordination. And I'm so glad to hear that you've had amazing role models growing up.

And hopefully now you can be an inspiration for other people like your family has been for you. But I think what you've said about just really questioning policies to increase accessibility, and increase inclusiveness is what we strive for, regardless of what area of social work we're in. So it's really lovely to hear that you're so passionate about what you do and that you're clearly making a difference to the people that you support in addition to your team members. So they obviously appreciate being able to learn from you as much as you learn from them. So yeah, it's incredibly inspirational for me to hear as well. And I really thank you for the time that you've spent with me and for putting yourself out there

and introducing my listeners to you as a person and as a worker. Anna, thank you, Yasmin and Social Work Spotlight for inviting me in this interview and share my social work experience. I feel like I would like to mention here a little bit that in my community, actually in Australia, we have a small growing community, Bangladeshi community. I have completed a master's in social work and able to gain employment and on daily basis trying to make a positive difference in people's life,

which actually influenced, motivated many of my community members to become a social worker in Australia. I know many of them are underway to become a social worker. Some of them are already in the area. I feel proud and share my story and journey with many people, how I can become a social worker and my current role. Everyone feel very excited and motivated when they're hearing my story. I feel like this is a great achievement for me because I am able to influence and motivate other people to become, to come into this social workspace. That's incredible.

It's really an immense pleasure for me. And I have always often, some people always raise some excuse. that I have two children, three children, I have family responsibilities, and it becomes a barrier to become a social worker, to become admitted into the uni. Then actually I have shared them my family story. We have three children since 2012 to 2022. I have completed all of my qualification having these three children. And my wife, she's also starting.

She's in the fourth year of Bachelor of Education at this moment. We are doing all of these things, having three children. And as a community, we are running a community school on every Sunday. And my wife is a teacher in there. She is contributing a lot of time, building awareness and literate the local community children. I mean, our community children, to learn the native language and involve with other activities, like in the NDIC space, what is autism spectrum disorder, what trauma looks like. so it can help other people to understand this.

So role modeling is really important. We have been doing that and a lot of people are feel encouraged and motivated to come into this social workspace. Yeah, it sounds as though you're always a social worker. You never turn off. That's right. Yeah, we're trying. But to become a successful social worker, I feel like self-reflection is really important and always gain new knowledge, seek for new knowledge and improve your practice is another aspect.

By saying this, I would like to finish here. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Yasmin and the Social Work Spotlight for giving me this opportunity. It is really a great honor for me. I know a lot of people is waiting to hear and listen to this interview, but thanks for inviting me in this interview. Thank you so much. and I know that you've put a document together with some resources. So I'll put that in the show notes so that people can do some more reading or research

if there's anything that they want to look up about what you're talking about. Thank you so much again, Mohamed, for doing this. I've loved meeting with you, and I really thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Thanks for joining me this week. If you'd like to continue this discussion or ask anything of either myself or Muhammad, please visit my anchor page at anchor.fm. slash social work spotlight. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, or you can email

SW Spotlight Podcast at gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you. Please also let me know if there is a particular topic you'd like discussed, or if you or another person you know would like to be featured on the show. Next episode's guest is Mitchell, who has worked as a disability support worker and a family preservation specialist for the Department of Communities and Justice, before moving into his current role as a child protection helpline case worker. I release a new episode every two weeks. Please subscribe to my podcast so you'll notify when this next episode is available. See you next time.