Social Work Spotlight - International Episode 11: Nur (Malaysia)

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

In this episode I speak with Nur, currently serving at a Government Hospital in Malaysia, working closely with patients and families, especially in cases involving child protection, sexual health awareness, emotional trauma, and family dynamics. Her practice centers on compassionate support, building safe spaces, and empowering individuals to navigate challenging life experiences with dignity.Links to resources mentioned in this week’s episode:Malaysian Association of Social Workers - https://www.masw.org.my/Malaysian Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development - https://www.kpwkm.gov.my/Amanah Raya financial trustee and legal support service - https://www.amanahraya.my/This episode's transcript can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16r_q9kULoZMk7flfU0dXUSjFNyptP-zMB2r9WKTEVeE/edit?usp=sharingThanks to Kevin Macleod of incompetech.com for our theme music.

Before beginning, I wish to acknowledge the traditional owners of the countries of guests featured in this podcast and acknowledge their continuing connection to land, waters and community. I pay my respects to the First Nations people, the cultures and the elders, past, present and emerging. Hi, and welcome to Social Work Spotlight, where I showcase different areas of the profession each episode, with a 12-month focus on social workers around the world as of August 2025. I'm your host Yasmin Lupus and today's guest is Noor, currently serving at a government hospital in Malaysia, working closely with patients and families, especially in cases involving child protection, sexual health awareness, emotional trauma and family dynamics. Her practice centers on compassionate support, building safe spaces and empowering individuals to navigate challenging life experiences with dignity.

Thank you so much, Nora, for joining me today on the podcast. I'm looking forward to speaking with you about your social work experience. Hi Yasmin. So actually I started out as a science stream student in 2010 until 2012. During my secondary school and my foundation studies. But then I met a counselor and did a career counseling. I found that I am a social person, which my personality is more to be socializing with people's, connecting with people. So I made a decision to pursue my degree in social work, which was a three-year program, which is in 2012 to 2015. And then during my final semester, I did my internship in a hospital setting and I continued working there for a replacement

workers there because one of their workers is, having a maternity leave. So a few months later, I began my post-graduate studies in medical social work. So we basically have a medical social work course in one of the National University, University of the Kibbansa Malaysia. So I started the program for about two years. During the program, so I was exposed to many aspects of our healthcare system, which include our public health foundations, healthcare management. So after two years, I think, I completed my postgraduate studies in medical social work and then I passed an interview to become a civil servant under the Ministry

of Health as a medical social worker. So it was my education journey as a social worker in Malaysia. Okay. And could you potentially have stopped at the undergraduate level without continuing to do those two years and still practice as a social worker if you didn't want to work in hospitals for instance? No. For the civil servant intake post so we must have at least the degree of social work as a general social work itself and then you will be invited for the interview and then after the interview we have another two step which is the psychometric test and the last one is the one to one interview and also grouping interviews with the panels. And if you hadn't done the master's research, is it still possible to work as a social worker

but just in a different area? Yes, it is possible because the post is actually for the degree post which is for the degree holder but for the post which is medical social worker It is a bonus for me. It is added value so that they can see that I have another, you know, specifically in medical, social work. So it makes you become one of the top candidates among the others, which who has not have post-graduate in medical especially. Yeah. So you're more competitive, I guess, in the job market. Yeah, yeah, it's supposed to be like that because we have like 100 plus post-graduates. students from the civil servant itself. I mean, they become a social worker in medical social work,

and then they continue their studies by using the government, we call it a gift from the government to continue studies, like a sponsorship for these workers to continue their postgraduate. Okay. Yeah, so during my postgraduate studies, we also have my classmate itself. they are amongst of these civil servants. Does that mean you need to work for the government for a number of years post getting that gift or we would probably call it a scholarship? Yes, it's true. You must at least be in the service for like three years.

Okay. And then your age must not be more than 35 years old. Oh, wow. Okay. That's a little bit restrictive. Yeah. Wow. And is the two years for the master's program full-time or were you able to do some work while you were studying?

So for me, I did a full-time post-graduate studies because I've just finished my short replacement for the workers who had been in Matinati leave. So I've just furthered my studies and before my congregation journey, so I've been called for interview. So I would say that it is very lucky of me for getting this interview right before I joined the convocation. That's perfect timing really. Yeah, actually, yes. I think this is very lucky for me. Yeah. And did you do some research as part of the Masters or was it more course-based content?

Yes, I do actually a mixed mode studies, which I do. part of it is research which i studies about initial custodial custody decisions of babies of unmarried mothers yeah so it is whether they wanted to taking care of their babies or they wanted to relinquish the babies for adoptions yeah and then we also have course week where we sit for an exam so basically we study about basic family health and also we learn about abnormal psychology. You know, we learn about mental health disease, right? So it's basic knowledge. And then we also learn about terminologies in hospital and hospital management in, we call it a tertiary,

secondary and primary healthcare services. That's so helpful because most often social workers will start working in the health setting and they have to learn that as they go. But you had a head start. It's quite a challenge for us because we need to sit in an exam, which our classmate is also a medical doctor's. So they set out a question for the exams, almost on the par with the doctors. But yes, of course, there are still a distinguished question between us and medical doctors. But also, they expect us to be busted in terminologies and also in... some of the disease mechanisms so that we can educate the patients, how this disease is taking part in their life, and how about the medication regime? We have to know a little bit about that.

That's incredible. You've developed so much knowledge so early on in your career. I'm curious to know with your research in the custody of babies, there must be a lot of cultural implications there that I myself coming from Australia can't possibly understand, but is there a lot of stigma for unmarried mothers? What are the sort of main issues that you were finding? Yeah, so during my studies, as you know that we in Malaysia, we have so many religions, right, including Islam, Muslim, and we have Christian, we have Buddhists. So this differently religious, actually, they've worked philosophy of how to take care of the kids and without marriage especially. So it's becoming quite a stigma for the three religions, for the three different religions, but also in Muslim

especially. We have the very, in Malaysia we have a very great stigma among the mother's. So most of them choose to self-parenting their baby. But somehow they have a very poor social support from the family member and especially the community in the community settings. So we as a social worker, we cater a lot of psychosocial supports for this mother, which include how do we care this patient pre and at the moment and also post-natal right? So to make sure that this mother and the baby itself have a holistic approach. approach to maintain their mental well-being especially. Yeah.

It's interesting. I was speaking recently with a social worker in Nepal, and she has done a lot of research around supporting women who are either seeking divorce or have gotten divorced because there's a lot of shame and stigma attached to that. And I mean, I guess we know as social workers that just because you have a couple raising a child or a couple, remaining in a marriage doesn't mean that that's a better outcome. But I guess it's very difficult

to change really strongly held beliefs of, you know, this is the way that things should be done. And if it's not, then there's something wrong. So that must be really, really challenging for these mothers who are probably quite young and still trying to develop themselves, right? Yes. They are in a very bad predicament. So they have to struggle with financials. They have to They have to struggle with the ports from the family members. And especially we in Malaysia, we have the indigenous groups, which they are still in the, you know, living in the rural areas. And sometimes some of them are still living in the forest. We have to reach them to give them awareness on how to taking care of the kids properly.

So that, you know, the wellness of the baby is being protected as our, Child Act 2001 which we cater for the child's wellness and also safety and protection for the child itself. You deal with so much in a medical setting. So you've got child protection issues there. You've probably got aging people. It's such a big spectrum of things that you would come across as a medical social worker. Did you then in your work after having done that research support a a lot of unmarried women who are having babies or was that one point in time and you kind of do something different now? What were you doing once you graduated basically? Yeah, during my research, I was thinking that what will be the most important thing for these vulnerable groups is

actually supports from the community. So when I just finished the studies, I bring up the paperwork actually to one of our conference, which is the medical social work conference. So I presented the results. So I make sure that all the social workers know that this is the statistics for our unwred mothers that you have to be concerned about this statistic because the raising of numbers of unwared mothers with no support is rising significantly. So for the our head of social workers itself, He is giving me a lot of supports and he also invited me to do more research after that

so that we can study a lot more strategies and prevention methods for this teenage young mothers so that they could be a mother, you know, within their young age and regardless of that, they have gotten a holistic care for the child itself. And were you able to continue doing research or you started working in the hospital and maybe someone else is doing that research? Yeah, currently I'm stuck with the hospital because of the workloads and burdens. So but I also encouraging my juniors, so which they have done the same research. So I've been giving them supports and also giving them sources from my hospital, you know, as I can and give them resources from the unworked workers for them to continue studies about these vulnerable groups.

That's so great. That is the least I could do for the moment. Yeah, of course, that's a lot. And also fostering new generation of social workers who are hopefully excited about research, which is really important. Yes, it's true. So were you saying you finished your studies about 10 years ago? Is that correct?

Yeah, I finished my post-graduate studies around seven years ago. Okay. So it's quite long time ago. Yeah. Have you worked in the hospital since then or have you done something different as well? Yes. A week before I finished my congregations, I've got the offer letter from the government to go and have my service for my first posting as a medical social worker

and a hospital in Sabah, which is. it is actually a rural area with a large population because it is their population is actually double the Peninsula Malaysia. Wow. And do you have much interaction with social workers in different parts of the country? Yes, of course. Because as for you to know, in my state, Pahang, we have, I guess, like 11 district. So, inside the district, district we have in my place, which is Pekan. Pekan is a sub-district.

Okay. So Pekan is the district and we have another 11 sub-district, which is covered by two social workers. So we covered a space of around like 35.9 six square kilometers, which includes of 161,000 populations in this district. Wow. So we also cover. the indigenous people because in Bahang we have lots of indigenous people so their population is quite large compared to the Malays and Chinese and also Indians so it's

quite challenged for me because we have to go out for the outreach program if you want to you know do a prevention program or we wanted to go and check them and if we wanted to have a clinic with them, we have to go for visiting in rural areas which takes around two to three hours to the jungle. That's such a large area. It's also quite a, as you said, a diverse area. So do you have to use interpreters? How do you manage the language differences? Basically, the indigenous people in this area, they were still able to converse in the same language as us is just that they have a little bit slang but still we could understand them but sometimes we have the nurses which was posted in the area they were actually came from the cities but was posted

them you know to have their service to the indigenous people so sometimes we use them to help us for getting information or for some of them which cannot speak in our native language. Yeah. And how often do you need to go out to these areas or is it your team members who also go out so you don't go all the time? Basically for the visiting clinics we done it every month once in a month but for the home visits we go to the home visit, basically, all the cases like based on the necessities. So if we have the case referred by the doctors and the case need our raise our concern that we need to go to the house and do the inspections, do the assessment, do the home assessment as well. So we will go to the home. I mean we not have

limited numbers of home visits. It depended on the case itself. Okay, so you're very busy is what I'm hearing. Yes. I could say so because we have a very short manpower. So, you know, in hospital, we are actually a sub-specialist hospital, but we only have two social workers, which is we are actually a general social workers. Why I say general? Because we covered all departments in the hospital. We have it for pediatrics.

We covered for their rehabilitation. We covered for the mental health. As a psychiatric, we also cover for the medical ward. So we basically are generally medical social workers, we covers all. But for some hospitals, they informally divide among themselves for the cases. Some of them covers for the psychiatric and some of them are covered for the rehabilitation. So it depends on their head of service, but for me, we only have two social workers, so. workers so we couldn't we couldn't have done much for that yeah and how many people are

able to be in the hospital I'm just trying to think of the ratio of social worker to patient must be very high usually we have like for one year 400 to 600 per year but for monthly cases it almost like 200 patients per month but back to as a social worker one cases it's just like 10 cases right so when you're getting your complex cases in one cases you have divorce issues and then you have broken family issues and then you have poverty issues so there's a lot to cater in only one cases so i would say that if we count into the numbers of intervention it could be more than thousand per years that's incredible I was speaking earlier with a social worker or two social workers actually in Singapore and they work in what's called a transitional care facility.

So it's for sub-acute in a sense. So it's people who are medically stable. They can leave the main hospital, but they need to still have care provided until they wait for something else. So either waiting until they can go home with services or waiting until a nursing home bed becomes available. Is there something similar for you where people can leave hospital and help with the flow of patients but still be supported in some way? Yes, especially for us in a medium-income country, you know, middle-income country. We have a lot of financial issues and we have a lot of resources issues, especially to help all those needs, one of the group. Yeah. And so, you,

you have to know all of the services that are available so you can help with the referrals yeah yeah it's true i have to you know master in all so i'm very lucky because i have the basic of medical learning during the post-grade so some of my friends who are coming from the degree background is quite pretty for them because they have to study back a lot of things while you have to catch up a lot of patients daily but I think manpower as a social worker is a global problem I think absolutely yeah there's never enough of us yes does Malaysia try to get social workers from different countries like I know Singapore does with a lot of Hong Kong social workers do you try to recruit from different countries does that help or is it

more that there's not enough funding so the social workers from Malaysia can't get the jobs. I think for now there's no recruitment from other countries. In Malaysia we're currently among the doctors. They are doing the demonstration because of short style. Okay. Yeah. So we as a social worker, if we were doing the same demonstrations, we would be like on the bottom one to be, we are not there of prioritisation. So we are. So even they neglect the doctors and what even else as a social workers. So if you ask me about recruitment, I would say that for now, there would be no special needs for the social workers to recruit from other countries.

Other than resource problems and just the amount of time it takes to develop your specialty, what are some challenges that you face as a social worker in Malaysia? I think this is one of the most that I couldn't absorb to myself, which I hated the most, which is the very poor law enforcement nature. So it is also very inconsistent, especially for the child protection, right, for the sexual assault case, whether it is consented or it is not presented for the children, right, for the underage. So according to our law, which is Child Act 2001, the child age below 18 is considered as children. So if they had sets between them, within the age, which I said just now,

so they should have been punished according to the juvenile courts. So some of the cases, the parents especially, some of them is reluctant to launch for this report. and also some of the law enforcement. Even though we reported the case, sometimes they say the process is going to be long and the family going to spend a lot of resources, time, money. So the parents will eventually drop the drug the case because of these peer-mongering types of authorities. So that's why we are seeing lots of cases, especially in my place. We have a lot of cases that we have to, I call it to tolerate with that. Even though we know that according to the law, this is not right and this is not something that we should normalize

so that our future generation to be safe and to be protected. Yes, because we doesn't know if this is going to happen to our child, our own child, right? So I would say that I am living in a life where full full, of uncertainties. Yeah. So it kind of goes against your values in some sense, but you feel maybe powerless to speak out against it or take action. Yeah, but somehow we advocate our best.

Usually when parents reluctant to launch this reports or the parents are scared of the commitments on going for the court proceeding, right? So we're going to give guidance to the parents and we're going to link them to resources like financial assistance, financial support for logistic, so that they can fulfill the court proceeding process until the case police settled. And given that the people under 18 in those processes are considered children and maybe don't have the same rights, does the court still hear their opinion or their voice or not so much. Sometimes I couldn't say much about that during the court proceeding because we as a medical

social worker, we just involved during the legal guidelines at the hospital settings. So we don't know actually what happened during the court's proceeding and we don't know if the child actually given to say their opinion. But usually when I do know during the intervention in hospital, we usually guide the parents to encourage the child, actually to give information to the authorities like child protector and the authorities like the police. The police is tough for evidence collections. So if they are below 18, they will also send to the we call it as CIC. This is a center for the counselor to interview the kids.

So they would usually ask the kids what happened actually in the situations, whether this is an act out of love or whatever it is. So some of them, especially for indigenous people, usually for the underage. This is their culture for having underage marriage. So sometimes the court, they considered that the culture issue, the culture which, I mean the law intersect with the culture. So sometimes they suck the opinion now, the opinion of the child being having sex below the age of 18. Sure. Yeah. It's so complicated, but we're complicated people, right? And as you said, it's about how the law intersects with health and intersects with what we think culturally is appropriate. That's really hard to distinguish. Yeah, because I also ask my superior, so how

How does we deal? This is what I asked during my first year of working in medical social work. So I asked them, so we don't have any specific child act for the certain cultures, certain cultures, right? So how do we deal with this? So my superer said, this is actually based on we still maintaining the original law, which is the child act 2001. We still referred to that, but on certain cases, the court receives opinions. from the culture sites depends on the degree of their 40 not to immediate in the law. And you mentioned you work with people who have mental health concerns

and probably also older people where maybe capacity and decision making is questioned. Do you need to, in your role, help with those situations where maybe the boundary is a little bit blurred in terms of someone, being able to make decisions for themselves? Usually when we work with patients with mental health or elderly with dementia and so on. So we basically have the family members by the sites when we are taking information and everything. We have the consent from the family members. But however, for some cases like giving consent to entering the institutions, we're

out their money for their routine routine years, right? So basically, the doctors will make sure that they have the capability of making decisions before we cater to the interventions. Because the family itself, some of certain cases, the family itself, they don't have the authorities to make decisions for the patients because of the law, right? I think in Australia also you have mental health. of X. Right. That's right. Yeah. So you might have someone who might be scheduled under the act. So they, someone else has to make a decision for them. And similarly, you can have a guardianship order or a

financial management order. But that has to be seen in a court for someone to determine. Firstly, that they have a disability that impairs their decision making ability and that a decision needs to be made here and now and here's who's going to do that? Who's the best person? Yeah. Usually also in Malaysia, as far as I know, the doctors will settle until the patient is stabilised and then the social workers will get it at least. But once it's involved, the financial structure, such as we need the financial support from the patient. Let's say if the patient is somewhat financially capable so we usually use an agency used for all Malaysian actually if anything happened we call it Amanah Raya this is like a council

who taking care of money for everybody who has not capability to make at the moment so basically for the financial we will refer to these agencies and the representative will come and there's a few paper works to be done so that we can use that money for patients use in future. But somehow regarding medical treatment and so on, the family members could take over the rights to consent. Okay. So it sounds similar, at least in New South Wales, so the state where I work, we have what's called the public trustee, which handles financial matters independently, but we also have a public guardian. So someone can be appointed if, for instance, a family member is not wanting to or isn't available to help that

person with decisions, then someone in a public office can do that for them. So it sounds very simple. It's all very challenging work, but what support do you need? How do you get through it every day and come back for more? I would like to share with you. This is one of the best story of my life. why I stayed with social works. So this has actually happened during my first internship, during my degree in social work, which is in Kedah at the moment. So during that time, I have this one patient, which is diagnosed with diabetes, malitus. It is for us, it is just basic chronic disease. This is a normal one. It is treatable but not curable, right? So she came with me at the moment with a very gloom face, dark confessions.

She seems like someone who has no, it's like no tomorrow for her. She came at me for the moment. So I did an intervention, so I write down just a piece of paper, you know, linking her to an agency's, get her financial support. So she came back a month later, glowingly, breathfully. She held my hand, she pressed very hard. You know, she desperately said thank you to me. She seemed so much happier than the first time she met me.

So I think it is a very unusual feeling for me. This is the first time I think people thank me, you know, very sincere, very, I could feel it deep to my heart. So for me, it just a mere later that I wrote, it changed her life from a Glomac Clinic Day that day. to glorious festive seasons. So, you know, everybody in the office at the moment, they were shocked, but everybody was so happy. She was, you know, saying hi to everybody, just like a new different person. So I will never forget the difference in her face for the first time she met me until a month later.

So on that moment, the word thank you while she grabbed my hand, you know, that was my confirmation that, yes. this is for me. I am in the right place and you know sometimes when I'm patient especially with the emotional disturbance I just see that I don't know why but I could say that I have an instinct to understand what it feels could be called empathy right I could feel what they feel maybe because of also because of my past I had my very bad past but I don't want to turn it into something. When people gives you lemons, you makes lemonade. So I wanted my life to be like that. So I think I've done something even though people could not give me that, but I want to give that to

other people. So until now, when my patient gave back to me after I've been helping them, they completely get the fix. So they will come back for me. They will always remember. So they are membranes about me. I just wrote a later, but they make it like I'm giving them a goal. Okay. That is a very satisfaction for me and that's keep me going of being social work, even though you know we have woodnotes and everything, right? But that's keep me renewing my intention to become a social worker, everyone at least. That's so beautiful and I think it really speaks to the fact that in social work, sometimes what we think we're doing is so basic and small. And really what you gave to that woman was dignity. You sat down and you spent time with her and you

understood her situation. You gave her the respect of we're on the same level here. I just want to understand where you're at. And I acknowledge that you've had a difficult time. Maybe that was the first time that she'd been seen properly and that someone had given her that honour of being able to talk about what was difficult for her and you gave her time. I think what we don't realize is how much a very small interaction or intervention can be for someone who maybe they haven't had that ever or maybe they have but you've given it to them at the time that they needed it most. So for you, it was just one of the 20 things you had to do that day. Yes, and I would love to share this one quote that I got from internet,

but it has been my life motto as a social worker. Social workers since back then today. So I don't really remember the whole words, the whole sentence, but it sounds like the privilege of listening to things that they may have not the chance to tell anyone. I mean, being a social worker who listen to their stories, it is actually a privilege. Which that story that may have not chance to, you know, to tell to anyone. I relate this much to the child sexual abuse victims.

So she holds time with the event, the heartful event for like five years. And then after the five years when the case was exposed and she was coming to you. the hospital she said to me this is the first time I was telling my story of being raped by my own father so I would say that the five years you know where is her family where is her mother where is her sister where is a support system why this kid has no courage to tell anybody why so it must be a wrong somewhere right so that the small kids couldn't say anything until that it was exposed by someone else outside of the home. And the kids will bring birth to the hospital

and we investigate the case. And that was how bad the world we're living in today. But it really is a privilege to be welcomed into the homes, the clinics, the lives of other people. And you must have developed trust in that person. Otherwise, they wouldn't have told their story. So that's part of what we do and what we're good at, right? Yes.

But you are only one of two people. Do you get any other social work support, supervision? Who do you turn to when things are really rough? Actually, I do have this one pick. I mean, in the same state, just the district beside me. So it's not far from here. So we usually contacted each other for any cases that we need to be this. us because I have to tell you this one really is mostly in Malaysia.

We have some of the offices which they practice the old school style and some of the offices they practice the evidence based practices for the intervention and so on. So for us the newcomers, we mostly love the evidence intervention for our patients. So basically I might choose people to turn on to share my cases which I have difficulties to settle. So I have this one colleague that I always hope on her and we would discuss everything almost two of us. So I would also ask from other seniors, I mean from the other states, which I think they practice the same varies as me. So it would be easier for me, since we are holding on to a specific as the same value, right? So I have, if you say, who is the support that I have along this time. I have seniors that can be

dependent on. I have colleagues and I also have my husband itself, her has been my biggest supporter, which when I, coming from hospital with a lot of emotional burnouts. So I would tell him, I'm not telling him the case, but I would tell him, today I'm dealing with a very heavy case. So it's quite hard for me to make decisions. Or I'll be telling him, I've been handling lots of crisis cases today. So he'll be helping me with going out somewhere, taking up my stress so I would say I have enough support at the moment that's

great it sounds like he helps to balance your energy and you could probably do the same thing yes you can't work in social work if you have no support I mean you listen to everybody's problem right every day so it's going to impact you somehow but you have to try to maintain your well-being your well-being Absolutely. And given that you've more than done the service that you needed to do, you had to do three years, you've done seven. It sounds as though you really love this work, but if you had the opportunity to do any other kind of social work, what would you like to do? I actually would do criminals, I think. I'm one of the fans of Law and Audit series, if you know that.

Yes. Lons and all the series says. I always love to see that. So I was imagining myself, you know, being a social worker in that since, because I've seen the satisfaction becoming a social worker when you have to work together with the legal proceedings and you look very close with the legal representative and you know a lot about the laws and then you know how to protect these kids. us in hospital settings, we just had our termination service until the legal guideline,

and then we passed up to the next child protector, and then go to the court. So it doesn't give me satisfaction, as I couldn't see that the case was settled properly. I mean, sometimes the law enforcement, I would speak. So I couldn't be there to advocate. I mean, that's what I mean. That would be so interesting. So you watch films or TV shows that are to do with that kind of. Do you enjoy reading things to do with social work?

Do you watch or listen to many things that are social work related? Or do you try to not be a social worker when you're not at work? I think during my first four years, during the time I was in a very small hospital. It is the burden of cases is a bit low. So I have the time to, you know, reads a lot of things. I even take exams for the oncology, the free exam seats to learn more about oncology. I even set the example, how you learn about cancer. So during my first four years, so I had a lot of time to do that.

But when I changed my workplace, which is I was posted to a my second place which is now in Fahang. This is a subspecialist hospital. So I couldn't have much time just in the small hospital. So sometimes I do read medical procedures, which I know I could help my patient. Sometimes, you know, when the doctors suggested treatment for this patient,

sometimes they don't even know what is the disease, they don't even know what is a treatment, and they don't even know the main medication regime and we as a social worker sometimes we have to repeat it back in a layman terms then oh this is the way actually I thought this is like blah blah blah so I don't know what they listen to the doctors actually what they are actually listening to the doctors so I always complain to my doctors why your patient is not knowing anything about you know especially the medication right so yeah so I actually

We love to read medical procedures and everything. And actually, I have a dream. I've seen medical social workers in overseas. The practice therapies, I mean therapies for mental health. So unlike we in Malaysia, we don't have therapy because we are not certified to do that. So I was always imagining myself, you know, what if I go to do to?

take a course in any other country and then I went back practice in Malaysia because we still do have that in Malaysia so I do have that spirit. Nice. Do you think social work in Malaysia is well understood by the general public? Is there, are there social workers on TV or in movies? Is it sort of something that people know about or people misunderstand a lot? I would think that a social work profession in Malaysia is still far below the part. It's never been in the movie and also, I mean, in the hospital itself, I think most of the

patient thinks everyone that wore a white coat is a doctor. So I didn't even think that they notice as a social worker's, but once the doctor refueled what the case do is, and then we usually explain. So I will also explain I'm a medical social worker. I got a case referred by doctors. So the doctors suggested that you use this and this, this, this, this, this. So I'm going to help you with this. I'm going to guide you how to get this.

And so if you have any other problems, such as emotional problems, you have social issue at home, you can tell me so that I can help you. That's when they know, oh, we have this kind of office in hospital. So they would say to me, if they know this earlier, they would be worried free to come to hospital. Right. Yeah, because most of them, they were very scared to come to hospital first because of the billings, cat of the treatment itself. So once they came to us, sometimes most of them give a very positive feedback that they learn a lot from us.

Okay, but it requires quite a bit of education from you. Yeah. In university, we have this social work course. It is still limited that people know this kind of course. Because of, I think one of the other things that cost more to this course, which is social works when it's translated to Malay, it's becoming like a volunteerist. Okay.

We call it's like a social work. So in Malay, when they translate it back to the thing, we are the one who, giving their blood event, so they're volunteers who are coming to giving food, right? So they think that is social work. Even our summer of our ministry also, when they pronounce us in the media, when there is an event or whatever it is, so they will always pronounce us from So we have to, you know, educate them repeatedly. Yeah. Because I think in Western countries, usually this has been exposed from years ago, right?

So in Malaysia, I could say that it's still young, even though it's almost like 40 years. Sure, yeah. Well, even though in a lot of Western countries, there has been more exposure to social work. sometimes the public's perception of what we do is wrong because they might have seen, oh, they just take children away or they do this other thing. So there's still a level of education that's needed so that people can understand. Actually, no, we have a lot of training and ability and we can help in many ways. Yes, I agree with you about taking away the child because we experience the same here.

Usually we mentioned about the social welfare and then the mother, usually the unreadmothers, the mother, they will always get sometimes some of them as from the hospitals. Yeah. You know, these people were taking away their kids. So usually before they come to us, when I call the parents, I would say that we are from social welfare department, so we're not going to take away a child because we have limited It's a addition to put them. So we just wanted to make sure that the baby's well-being is taking care,

and the mother's well-being is taking care as all. So we just wanted to know and wanted to help. So that work. We always mention repeatedly to the parents especially. Yeah. And hopefully if they have a good experience with your service, then they can tell their friends. And there's a rollout effect of hopefully more people understanding.

that we're there to help, not just to take intervention that might have a bad impact on their family. Yeah, I hope so. You've had so much interesting experience in a relatively short period of time, really, even back from when you did the research into supporting unmarried mothers and ideally setting out to create really quality outcomes for them through the approaches and all the additional study that you've done around gaining medical knowledge and the complexity that comes with healthcare work and the restrictions that are unfortunately always going to be there.

But you've made such a meaningful difference in so many people's lives and that's why you wanted to do it and that's why you continue to do it. Is there anything that we haven't had a chance to talk about that you wanted to mention before we finish up? I would just to highlight resources I would recommend if you wanted to know more about social work in Malaysia. So you can refer to the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development. This is a ministry that covers the women, family and also community. So some of our cases also we involve with coordination from them,

especially when it comes to child welfare. And then the second council, which is I would suggest Malaysian Association of Social Workers, this is actually a national profession body. They're representing national social workers in Malaysia. So they have experienced like, I think more than 40 years, they started in 1973. So they basically promote the professions and upholds the ethical standards. And as you know, we are currently not being recognized by the acts yet, like any other countries. So this body actually, they played a very active role to pushing for social work profession acts,

which aim to regulate and recognise social work as a professional field in Malaysia. So they also affiliated actually with international organisations, such as the International Federation of Social Works and Asian Pacific Association for Social Work Education. So I think this is a council that helps us social workers in Malaysia to advocate for our rights in our social work, also as the other profession bodies such as doctors, legal and also teachers. So we are still on the back of the line,

but still we are striving toward the lines. So hopefully in future, we can, we could reach how far that Australian social work has been now. So I think we still have a lot more, but slowly but surely. Yeah, no, those are really great resources and I'll find those links and I'll put them in the show notes so people can have a look at that information if they're interested in knowing more. Yeah. Thank you again, Noor so much. This has been such a lovely conversation and I'm really fortunate to be able to hear about the Malaysian perspective and all the things that you've done and continue to do. So I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Thank you to you too,

Yasmin, for reaching out me and for giving up the opportunity to, I mean, share what's kind of social workers in Malaysia. And when I sit in this whole podcast is my own opinion and it doesn't buy any, I mean, the Social Works Association in Malaysia, so even. So I also like to thank you again for, you know, noticing me in LinkedIn. So I won't think that before. Well, thank you again. Thanks for joining me this week. If you'd like to continue this discussion or ask anything of either myself or nor,

please visit my anchor page at anchor.fm. Social Work Spotlight. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram and Blue Sky, or you can email SW Spotlight Podcast at gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you. Next episode's guest is Sam, a forensic mental health social worker based in a specialist community mental health team in South London, tailored to work with forensic mental health patients who have additional needs in the context of intellectual disability and or neurodevelopmental disorders. Prior to this, he was based with an outreach-focused mental health team working with people rough sleeping. I release a new episode every two weeks.

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