Social Work Spotlight - International Episode 14: Marta (Portugal)

Episode Date: February 28, 2026

In this episode I speak with Marta, who beyond being someone who is deeply passionate about people, considers herself a nonconformist; someone who strives every day to make a difference. Marta holds a degree in Social Work and a Master’s in Social Work, with a focus on Chronic Kidney Disease and its impact on patients and their families. Marta is also a couple and family therapist and the mother of four daughters.Links to resources mentioned in this week’s episode:Marta’s Diaverum profile - https://www.diaverum.pt/en/diaverum-portugal/diaverum-in-portugal/management-team/marta-olim/Marta’s publications - https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marta-OlimMarta’s LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/marta-freitas-olim-52521ab6/Testimonials from Diaverum’s project for caregivers (‘We, Families’) - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Wv1_B7AKp1EHcpt7vIwVh90BEi9IbebH/view?usp=sharingThis episode's transcript can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18lxc6Tt-UX1MpEcWZBM4QSMxVTWhAixvEmck1BCI2dg/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, Jasmine Lupus, and today's guest is Marta in Portugal, who beyond being someone who is deeply passionate about people, considers herself a non-conformist, someone who strives every day to make a difference. Marta holds a degree in social work and a master's in social work

with a focus on chronic kidney disease and its impact on patients and their families. Marta is also a couple and family therapist and the mother of four daughters. Hi Marta. Lovely to meet with you. for coming on to the podcast today. It's a privilege to be joined by you, someone who's got so much experience and especially to hear a little bit more about the Portuguese context of social work. Thank you so much, Yasmin. It's a pleasure to be here with you, have this kind of opportunity. It means a lot to me. And I hope that moment goes according to your expectations.

I'm sure it will exceed. But the first thing I ask everyone normally is, when did you get started in social work? What brought you to the profession? So I have this certain in my life. I become a social worker because of my mother. She was a psychologist and worked in a residential centers for boys and girls. Living with the strong emotional and social difficulties and conditions. For example, children who had been neglected, mistreated or already have a conflict with law. So in that place, in that organization, the goal of the organization was to rebuild lives of these children until 18 years old.

And during their time there, the team tried to help each young person and create a path with him, okay, for the future. So they could live at 18s with hope, with skills, to live in society. And I can say that I was almost rise in that institution. My mother spent many, many days hours there, and I grew up, surrounded by the different struggles, different kinds of pain too. And this, I guess, shaped me deeply. It made me understand very early in my life that the other is also plus. And then, even in a very difficult condition, a person can change.

Transformation is possible, but only through connection, relationship. And I learned this when I'm a much. child. And it was very naturally for me, this kind of thing. And I feel this every day in that place, when someone believe you, sometimes even before you believe in yourself, a new path can open. And there is one moment that I remembered and I will never forget because mark my entire life. I was a child and a boy with my age. A boy. was covered in the small burn marks from cigarettes hands made by his father, carrying me in his arms because I fall after we are playing.

And yet he had so little and he suffered so much, but he still offered kindness, love and compassion for me. And this marked my entire life. I was a child, he's a child too. So these moments, at that moment, taught me everything. It taught me that people, even in pain, and it's very, very magical for me, can give love. And it taught me that my purpose is people to walk with them, to believe in them, and to hold them find their own strength.

And that is why I guess I become a social worker. That's such a beautiful story. And I think it's a really good indication of the power of transformation and belief in a person's capacity. And what a wonderful experience for you to have from such a young age. Yes. Lucky of me that I have a mother that show me the other world. This was the opportunity of my life, raised here in this space. and I am the woman that I am today because of this place.

And that's it. Yeah. So you started studying the Bachelor of Social Work, but I understand you also did a Master's of Social Work. What's the difference in Portugal? Because in Australia, the Bachelor of Social Work is sufficient for you to then practice as a social worker. If you choose to do a Master's, it's because you're doing perhaps an additional research degree or you're doing an additional clinical degree in counselling. So is it an add-on?

Is it... Here in Portugal, I did five years, five years, a degree as a social worker, not a bachelor. Here we have a name because it's before Bologna, the program. And then after Bologna, I'm a student before Bologna, okay? But after Bologna, you have just three years. But in Portugal, we had before Bologna five years of a degree in social worker. You have five years of university. You did three work in the field, okay, the internal chips.

And then if you want to specialize in a particular area, in my case in nephrology, and the impact of the chronic kidney disease in. self and in the family, you do a master. You could do a master in a social work or on psychology or other, okay? You choose. Okay. I have colleagues that do a master in psychology. I want to do a master in social work in this particular area of chronic kidney disease. Okay. So it was your own continuing professional development rather than something that you had to do? I also have a degree in family and couples therapy. So I'm a therapist too and it's a part of my professional life. Nice. And is there a specific approach that you like to use, say a Gottman approach or something

else in your work? I guess when you are a social worker and a therapist, because you are both, okay? And when you are with the people, you are both and the approach is different. It's more psychosocial approach. You are very focused in the competensions and the skills of the people and their internal resources. For me, the most important when I work with people is found with the person, the internal resources. First, you have to work the internal resources. Then you go to the external resources. Because if the person don't have this kind of preparation, this kind of conscience, they could not act unite the external resources. So this is my approach. Work the skills, work the competence, give conscience to these people, you know, you are good on this.

Believe first and do a path with the person after this to the external resources in the community. So this is my resource. And this, I guess I pick on the the therapy. Yeah. And I understand you've also done quite a bit of research and published. Is research taught at university in Portugal? Because in Australia, at least, I know a lot of social workers are afraid of the word research. They feel like it's something that they're not familiar with or, you know,

it's a word that perhaps incites a bit of fear and despite the fact that social workers are doing research every day, right? I have a very strong opinion about research. If you don't do resource and investigation, you don't let the time, your practice. And when you do resource, I know it's not easy because you have to have partnerships with universities, okay? And it's very, very difficult to focus in the research. But research is a fundamental pillar to work. because when you research you have so many data that you could use on your practice.

Look, we don't have here in Portugal a matrix that categorize the entire persons, our patients in dialysis. And I begin to build and design these metrics, the social complexity, metrics for patients with chronic kidney disease on dialysis. And I design with my team validate and publish in the United States. And then we have a tool that categorize all our patients. And above all, we know that some have a very high complexity, another one have median complexity, and the others have low complexity.

So in the terms of our intervention, we have to prioritize the height and medium. And we have to go to the lowers ones too. But this is very important because with this, you reduce the risk, the social risk, and you can prevent the increase of problems. So this is fundamental. This is an example of investigation. And every day we know in our several clinics, 28 in Portugal, 3,500 patients, the complexity of these people and the risks. Without the scale, without these metrics, we don't know anything.

So this is very important. This is just an example. And give the visibility that you need to intervene. Yeah. I helped to develop a very similar, what sounds like a similar matrix in the rehabilitation unit when I was working in a hospital. And what we found is that, yes, it helped to triage and to prioritize the caseload, but it also helped to advocate in terms of resourcing and being able to demonstrate that we had these

needs within our cohort. And another thing that I think this is very important, the visibility of our work. because we are in the practice. We do a lot of things, but when you talk with a regular citizen, they don't know what is a social worker. That's right. That changed so many lives. So this kind of visibility of our work is very important too.

Yeah. Tell me what's led up to this point in your career. You've finished university. You've done additional training that's helped you to specialize. what is, I guess, the skills or the experience that you've developed along the way to get you to where you are now? So for 22 years, I have worked with people living with chronic kidney disease. I start in a hospital in Lisbon that was already very advanced at the time. The team working a truly interdisciplinary way with doctors, nurses, social workers, nutritionists, pharmacists,

And we are all together focused on the person as a whole. And this is very, very, very important. Very here I learned that only a complete and shared view of the person can truly improve lives. And this understanding guide me and guide my entire career. Okay. So I specialize in the impact of the disease on cells. and on their families. This was the focus of my master's thesis and even my training has a family and couples

therapists. My work explored how these disease affects relationships and how we can as a social worker has a therapist can create an interventional model that help people understand the disease and understand another thing that I think is very important that the disease does not define anyone. So 11 years ago I was invited to lead the social work department at Diavirn as an a national level. And today, Diabere in Portugal has 28 clinics carrying more 3,500 people. And we as a team. We are 10 social workers around the country support patients and their families. So we began to do some research and we designed the social complexity metrics. And now we are

able to categorize the population and define the risks. And we can intervene early, prevent crisis and risk and caucus in most urgent cases. So with this, we have a strong collaboration of community institutions because in community we have the resources that we want for our patients and our family and because the real answers often live in the community. So we have to have this kind of relationship with the community. So our work is based in a psychosocial support, the psychosocial approach and we support people through their old paths of the disease. Over the years, we developed several projects that could truly risk these people and projects that give them back meaning, connection and direction. So one example of this project is Believe More and Keep Born,

is this is the name of the project, with focus in a meaningful occupation using social group methodology. We also create programs for caregivers, families with the social group methodology to empowerment, them, work internal resources, skill, so they can feel they are supported to every stage of the disease of their own process. So in these clinics around the country, we launch initiatives to reduce social and family isolation, one of the biggest challenge for these patients, because the disease you know and the treatment can limit so much of their daily lives. And all these projects empower these people, help these people, put the disease in the right place. Not denying the disease ignore, but also not alone to take the old identity of the

person okay so this project are based in health literacy emotional literacy and legal literacy to people know their own social and medical rights it's very important know the disease the treatment to deal with this when you have information about your disease about your about your rights, you can choose more and better. This is our principle here, okay? This is our main premise for working with these people. And create a new life project because we don't want they lose themselves. This is our purpose and this is my main work with these people.

Yeah. I've worked in dialysis, so I have a few. fairly good understanding of kidney disease and the treatment involved and that sort of thing. But are you able to explain maybe for social workers or other people out there who perhaps haven't had that exposure? Maybe just a brief definition of kidney disease, haemodialysis, and why it might be so limiting for people. This is very important. Other thing that is very important. When people get sick with chronic kidney disease, they feel shocked. Even if she knows that I go to dialysis in four to three years, in the moment, they feel shocked. Anyone have this

kind of preparation for this moment, okay? Yeah. And when I did the welcoming to these people, one thing change one word you know what word changed this moment welcome moment of the the faculty and the passion is why is when I I speak to them and say look you can go on all the days yes it's possible and you have to go you have to go your land you have to go visit your families your friends go with your family at other place. Holiday is important and you can go. We have several clinics around the world. Pick one. Go. That's so great. But it's possible. Yes, it's possible. The system open. Okay, it's holiday. It's freedom and hope. And it's for us, it's normal. But for this kind of people, make the different in the welcome

a moment. Yeah and probably also in the trajectory of their disease if they have hope and they know that they can do things and lead a fulfilling life perhaps that's better for their disease trajectory and their outcomes overall. And these words you can go to your land. You can move, you can work, you can move to other clinic, the mobility for patients and caregivers are so important. Yeah. And this is a detail that is not the first detail that we think when we will do the triage or the welcome to this person, but in my experience, make the difference. So how did you coordinate something like this? You mentioned the partnerships in the community, but other travel agencies or services in different countries, how do you even begin something

that is quite basic really in context, but groundbreaking in terms of actually reality. So I have another area in the Evereux that I call Holiday. It's an area. I have social work. I have social responsibility and I have Holiday. And Holiday become a need for these people because as I saw, I told, is freedom and hope. And when we think about true care, we have to think not only the clinical issues, we have to think all the dimensions of the people. And I begin to see that people don't go to anywhere because of the fear, because of this insecurity. And I become to realize that I have to do something different for the life of these people.

And four years ago, I organized a program called Let's Travel Together because the caregivers feel also insecure to travel. But they want to go, but they want to feel supported. So this kind of problem, Let's Travel Together, that I began four years ago, allows people to travel. to a new place in Portugal, of course, and that's as a civil price because these persons have financial problems too, with everything adapted to their needs, accommodations, transportation, meals, activities, excursions. I did the partnerships with the municipalities that allows these people to do excursions and visit the place they are staying. And this makes a real different in their lives.

Watching them, it's magical every year I do this, watching them enjoy themselves, love, feel free, feel part of something that gives me a huge amount of joy. and gives me the energy to keep doing what we do. Because this opportunity, and I did this four years ago, three years ago, two, every day I do this. One week with this person that increase, increase, increase, it's so special because they feel this kind of freedom, this kind of hope. they create memories and create new friends. And this kind of share is joy.

Was there any kind of barrier or pushback when you were initially trying to develop this idea or were people just completely embracing and trying to see where they could help? When I began with this project, Let's Travel Together, I begin to know that people have the need to, go, but they feel blocked, they feel insecure because of the fears to go out. The fear of don't have the same clinical team to take care of them, okay? And I begin to think, okay, what could reduce the discomfort and this block this situation? Have a nurse there in the group.

So I invite a nurse there and these nurse go with me and they feel comfortable and secure because they have a nurse there that help the patients and help the caregivers. They think if something happened, I have a social work and I have a nurse with me. And I feel secure about this. This is the details but make the difference. So we travel with a nurse 24 hours and with a nurse. with me and we go to a clinic at the Iovarone one, next to the hospital, the hotel is next to the clinic, we have transportation and we have all the conditions that these people need to feel

secure and they go. Yeah. It's magic and one thing happened. After this problem they become to travel alone because they feel empowered and secure and they travel to other places in the world not only in Portugal to Spain for example in group small ones or individual that's so lovely yes this is a very very good project and do you travel much within the country to the different sites different hospitals no I travel one week and a year to a different places Every year I plan a different place to go. Okay.

Inside of Portugal. So you get to maintain a relationship with that clinic, which is really great. Other clinics, inside of Portugal, but other places and other clinics. Diavirons, but other clinics. Yeah, that's so important. I personally love the idea of leadership and supporting a team. You have quite a large team of people that you're supporting around the country. management is something I find a little bit more challenging.

So I'm always curious as to how social work skills and experience capacity and our training prepares us for leadership in social work. How do you find that process? So I currently, as you know, I work at Diavere and my role is support our social workers in the field in each clinic, okay, all around the country. My job is to walk with them through the most challenging cases, the ones with higher social complexity. So I believe that a certain distance can actually help. Because I'm not in the field, when I go to the field, I go with the glasses.

And it gives me the chance to offer a different perspective, a fresh part of health. Okay? And many times that is exactly what my colleague needs. My task is to be there for them, support them, help them, and reinforce their work with people that we care for. So, as I told you before, I also built bridges with the community, with the local institution, social local institution. I try to raise awareness about this specific population because the more visibility these people have with chronic kidney disease, the easier it become to support them. So be responsible for diabetes also help me to create this kind of connections through health literally see sessions, adapt to reality of each communities, where our clinics are located,

reinforce the relationships and continue of care to our patients. And we are all part in this way of the same team, working together to support these patients. So we usually run these sessions in community institutions, special do you. who work with us because many of patients are healthily and need the support of these local institutions. So by talking about chronic kidney disease, about the care it requires, we make a difference not only for our own patients and families, but also for others who may face this kind of condition in the future.

This is a circle that close. If you see social work, social responsibility is in the same circle that close. So, and this is very important when we have one in 10 people in Portugal that have chronic kidney disease. One, 10 people. And people know this, don't know this, don't know this, Don't know the risks.

Don't know. Yeah, I didn't realize that was so high. It's high. So a typical day for me is about connection, support my colleagues, engage with the community, create spaces where people can learn, feel seen, and be better prepared for their health journey, I guess. That's it. I actually just had to look it up because I wanted to say. how common chronic kidney disease was in Australia and it's 11% of people over 18. So it's actually

quite comparable to your context. And people don't know when you go to this kind of session, literacy, health literacy sessions to the community, to schools, to social institutions, to people, what? One in 10, but we don't have this kind of... What kind of risk? What kind of behavior that I have to have. And these kind of sessions are very important, but help us to give visibility to chronic kidney disease, help to prevent the disease, okay, but give the visibility to our patients. Okay, we can help, but you can help me too with social answers and social responses in the community. Yeah. So this is a perfect circle that begins and hands in the persons. And hopefully to give people hope that, yes, it is kind of a life sentence, but there are options for you.

Life doesn't end at diagnosis. Is there much in terms of, I don't know the stats, the statistics here in Australia either, but are there a lot of people still waiting for, I know that not everyone is a suitable transplant candidate, so there are a lot of people who might just be on dialysis indefinitely, and there's a lack of donations. there are a lot of things that complicate the fact that people will potentially stay on dialysis for life and never get that transplant. What's the context like in Portugal? We are one of the countries in the world that transplants more. Great.

And we have this kind of condition in Portugal. We transplant with a lot of success and a lot. We have a lot of campaigns in the community. We do this in diarrhea. We have transplant ambassadors that cooperate with us and we give this kind of visibility in the society. And we have a day just for renal transplant here in Portugal. So we are a quite prepared country and very, very specialized and sensitive to this question. And we transplant a lot here.

other than the things you've already mentioned that you love about the work you're doing about social work in general like the collaboration the partnerships the relationships that you get to have with the people that you work with and support what else is really rewarding about the work you do what do you love so i guess let me tell something that it's really important for me one of my phrases that guides my life is i am because you are My happiness is deeply connected to the happiness of others. So the most rewarding part of my work is, I guess, seeing people join, seeing people reconnect with life in their own way.

So when we develop a project and believe more and keep going is a very great example of this or a caregiver's one and see someone who was at home. passive, a motivational, suddenly start an activity, start to live, something that gives a meaning and rhythm to their days, that makes me truly happy. When we support families and caregivers to also take care of themselves, that's very, very important, first care of myself and there to care of others. So when we support them to have more emotional space to care for their loved ones, that is also deeply rewarding for me. So there are also moments that touch me in a very special way. For example, when we organize the trip, let's travel together and see that

people who never left their home because of the disease, because of their own insecurities, because of the freedom they have, and accept the challenge to travel together, create friendships, build memory, and allows themselves to dream again, those moments stay with me forever. And something that always makes me deeply happy is this, when a person with chronic kidney disease realize that the disease does not define them, when they put the disease in the right place truly live again and live fulfilling lives, this is the example that makes me happy.

So watch this kind of transformation. yes me it's incredibly powerful and I have this privilege to see the transformation in their lives every day co-built these projects go to the field feel this with my team because when the team feel this joy inside believe in people believe in these projects this makes me happy too so for me the most rewarding part is simple seeing people come back to life in their own way not in my way in their own way in their own space and knowing that we do journey together to get this point this makes me feel happy and did you say let's travel together has been operating for four years now yes so it's post-covert how did covid impact

the people that you're supporting it must have had a hearing huge, huge impact. We have to stop all the days in entire world. Because we are in the crisis, you know that this patient have low defenses, immunity. And we have to stop the mobility. And this is very challenging for the team, for the patient, for the family. And when we come with Let's Travel Together, 2026, it will be the fourth edition. Okay. When we start to do this project after COVID, give hope to these people and people began to

to travel. And as I say, travel is very, very important for hope. Yeah. What do you find challenging about the work you're doing, either about leadership or just being a parent while you're trying to do all this other stuff? You know, you're a human as well. Do you get to take holidays, you get to practice what you preach? So one of the most challenging things in the profession, I feel this, is remembering all the time that my time is not the other person's time. It can be very tempting to believe that someone should move forward when we feel that they are ready, but life doesn't work like that.

So not everyone because of their personal circumstance or social context. whatever, is immediately available to make changes when the disease happen in their own life. Sometimes we have the strong desire for a person to take the next step, to open a new chapter, to move forward, but they are simple not ready yet. And wait for this time, for me is challenging, but I respect. It's part of the journey. It's part of the interview. And respect this.

It's not her time. It's not his time. For me, the real challenge is stay aligned with the person time, with the person's rhythm, not mine. To walk behind them and their path and respect this. It's required patience. It's required humility and presence. It means being able to stay with the person in any circumstance. I have to reduce myself as a partner in a journey that will support. One time back, one time by side, one time a little bit in front, but respect the rhythm of the other.

And in the end, for me, this is the hardest part of my work, but I have a total respect of the time of the person. And that's it, I guess. the most challenge because for me and for my colleagues sometimes I have to say calm down you have to wait you have to be humble you have to put in their own shoes and feel the pain because pain block fear block and you have to empathize with the pain you have to empathize with the the angry sometimes he is not angry with you he's angry with the disease so we have to empathize with this angry to support them support him or her okay and this kind of circumstances that we have to create to

co-build a solution because the solution is not the ideal is the possible and we have to create together with the patient and caregivers and the community we have to co-create this and this is a creative very creative exit for all, but very powerful too, to reconstruct new life projects and meaningful projects, life projects. And this is challenging, but it's very transformative for teams and for social workers and for patients and their families. What support do you need to be able to do this though? Because yes, it's challenging work, it's cognitively draining potentially. How do you make sure that the work you're doing?

as sustainable. So we have indicators in our activity that we mount for month, we have to analyze and see if we are, we have goals, okay, and results and outcomes and indicators. And we have amount by amount do this kind of analysis together. What is our goal? What is our outcomes? What are our indicators. We are accomplished this. We are above this. We have to do efforts to go ahead and do something different and try something different. And this is the moment that we have to imagine other solutions, other ways to create path for these persons. That's why the projects are so important. Because these kind of projects, keep going for the occupations for these persons. These projects are very important because they boost the life of these persons. With the social group methodology, you have persons that are not motivated, they are blocked, and you give a boost with these projects.

And this is part of solution when we don't have the results. You have to create another alternatives and possibilities to give hope to these people and monitorize and have to monitorize your results. And we try to do this. These projects burn because of the need to transform something.

Okay, do you believe Mori keep going? Project burn of the need of, we have to be more effective on occupation of this person. What we can do more? Okay, we have to design something different here. Because the individual support, sometimes we can go with this individual support. We have to do something else different.

So these projects are based and born on this kind of need. And they are very strong because they have this kind of foundation. Help legal and emotional literacy are a listening space and create a supported group. And with skills training, empowerment program, guide patients towards a meaningful occupation, we go and get the occupation. We participate with local institutions, of course. We do nothing without the community. All our work is with the community.

And the community are in all our projects. Okay. That's so important. Because you need the buy-in of networks. Of course. You have to open the system. You have to open the system. And when you open the system, the microcosm, okay,

when you have this kind of information, the patients have to have this kind of information. Okay, I have resources there. They will support me. Okay, fine. So I will try. So this kind of project with the community there, is part of solution.

And because you're always looking for new research and new ideas, what are your current research priorities? What are you working on at the moment? Now I'm working with the research of the caregivers. I designed this project with the caregivers. We are families, project. And we are collected now data. We are doing the project all over the country. First, we begin with a pilot here. in Lisbon next to Instoril, in our clinic in Sturiel, then we go to other two clinics in Lisbon. And now we are in the north doing the same project

and see the difference behind the population in the north and south. And we have to apply two types of scales, the Kashi and Zardik scales in the beginning of the project and in the end of the project, we monetarize results. And we will do the resource in partnership with the university, of course. And now we are focused in what can we do more with the families to have a better quality of life

for patients and for families. So now my research is focused on this caregiver's project. Lovely. If you have any resources or things that you wanted to share with people or projects, programs, Is there anything specific you wanted to mention here? And then maybe also you can send me any links for people to go off and do their own reading or viewing. So if people like to know more about our work, they can always contact me through the LinkedIn or through my email. Okay.

I'm very open to sharing our project. We do this all the time in universities, in hospitals, our approach and the ideas that guides our work in Liberum. This is important. So my email is in the internet. If you Google it, it's there. And people can ask me whatever they want that I will help, of course. That's very generous. Thank you. But I'll also put that in the show notes so people can easily access.

While you were doing your practice, your internships while you were still a budding social worker, what other areas were you involved with? And are there any other areas of social work if you weren't working with chronic kidney disease dialy, assist these sorts of programs, what else would you be interested in doing? When I did internships, I did one in the hospital, the first one, and then I go to the justice. I worked in a jail that I liked very much. It was a very special experience for me. And I designed a project that I called Stop to Think to the people that are in the jail, women, that is a social project that reinforce social and individual and social

skills for this woman in these clinicians. And I did my internship there one year and I worked there for two more years as a volunteering doing other projects. And then I go to the hospital, work to the one in Lisbon. I worked there for 14 years and I have a lot of students 12 that do internships with me and this is an experience that I loved to do because it's magic when you are in the field and you have someone that you have to guide and guide to see the special things look this is special this is a very special moment. You have a camera in your eyes, keep this because this is the transformation of the person. And I have this kind of friendship with my internal, with these students that today they are

social workers. This was very, very interesting and magic for me. To have this kind of opportunity to guide and teach something in the field. And that's it. Do you have an opportunity to support students now or maybe support staff who have their own students? We support students, not me, but my colleagues. In the clinics, do that. Yeah, so you still get to be involved to some extent. That's so lovely. Madhita, thank you so much for sharing your experience.

Is there anything else before we finish up that you haven't had a chance to mention or that you wished I'd asked? I guess that I have something that I want to share. because it's very important to me. When we talked, you asked me what influenced me most. And I want to hand this podcast and thank you for this lovely opportunity to talk with you and talk about social work and talk about chronic kidney disease. But I want to left a message here in terms of what influenced me the most without any any doubt. It is being a mother of four daughters. They have shaped me every possible way. They teach me

every day. They challenge me and they inspire me to be a better person. The best lessons I have ever learned come from them. If I have who I am today, it is because of them. They are my deepest source of learning, love and purpose. Because be a mom of four daughters are very inspirational too and they help me a lot on my job and they teach me all the days. And are they interested in some sort of similar type of work? Yes, my oldest one is psychologist. And the second one goes to law and the others are very difficult. so I don't know, but... Yeah, they have time.

I guess they will do something that are focus on people because when we work with people, our lives change. Mm-hmm. Our lives change forever. Yeah. It's so lovely to see how your family influence has really shaped your experience and is now shaping the next generation in terms of them wanting to be able to provide emotional support and empowering people and building their skills

and not just for the patients, but for the families and for the communities that you're working with. So really nice to see how that flow-on effect has been happening. And I guess despite people's pain and circumstances, there's hope. That's the message that you're trying to bring. And throughout your experience, you're building in continued professional development. So you're integrating research into practice. You're trying to build new generations of social work and really trying to improve the visibility and understanding of social work within the country and internationally.

I think part of that is supporting others to have a better life, right? To see the joy in other people, that's the thing that you find most rewarding. But through the development of let's travel together, I think there's been an acknowledgement of how important living life is for these people. And throughout that, you've also acknowledged how difficult the work can be. It can be really challenging, but you've got a lot of wraparound support built into the framework of your program. So it's really lovely to see how that's all come about and the passion that you have for the work that you do really shines through.

So just, again, so grateful that you can spend the time with me today and explain a little bit about the context in Portugal and about the work that you're doing. And I'll definitely share those links as well. And if anyone has any questions for you, they obviously can reach out. Okay. Thank you so much, Yasmin. It was a pleasure and probably to be with you in this podcast. Thank you so much. Thanks for joining me this week.

If you'd like to continue this discussion or ask anything of either myself or Marta, please visit my anchor page at anchor.fm. slash 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 Nayanna Thara, a social worker from Sri Lanka and the founder of the island of stories,

a volunteer organization that supports children and women in education while also working as a lecturer in youth studies at the Open University of Sri Lanka. I release a new episode every two weeks. Please subscribe to my podcast so you will notify when this next episode is available. See you then.