Social Work Spotlight - International Episode 30: Dainora (Lithuania)

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

In this episode I speak with Dainora, a social worker from Lithuania, working as a Supported Decision-Making Specialist at the Agency for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and as a Marketing Manager at the Psychosocial Activity Centre “Nauja pradžia”, while also pursuing a master’s degree. Her work in supported decision-making focuses on empowering people with disabilities to make their own decisions, strengthen their independence, and have their voices heard. Links to resources mentioned in this week’s episode:Agency for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (ANTA) - https://anta.lrv.lt/lt/Psychosocial Activity Center “Nauja Pradžia (New Start)” - https://www.facebook.com/p/Nauja-prad%C5%BEia-psichosocialin%C4%97s-veiklos-centras-61560334597170/United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Article 12 (Equal recognition before the law) - https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/article-12-equal-recognition-before-the-law.htmlEuropean Disability Forum - https://www.edf-feph.org/“My Rights - My Voice” board game - https://pertvarka.lt/naujas-budas-kalbeti-apie-teises-ir-pasirinkimus-d-jurgaitytes-sukurtas-zaidimas-mano-teises-mano-balsas/This episode's transcript can be viewed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W-5dq8jG8fYiZ5I8U2CkmOoIvb7Odg-yhGLIQyP13t4/edit?usp=sharing

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 in 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 Dinora, a social worker from Lithuania, working as a supported decision-making specialist at the Agency for the Protection of the Rights of People with Disabilities, and as a marketing manager at the Psychosocial Activity Center, Nausia Prudjia. Her work in supported decision-making focuses on empowering people with disabilities to make their own decisions, strengthen their independence, and have their voices heard.

Dynora is currently pursuing a master's degree in social work at Klaipida University. Thanks Dynora for meeting with me today. Very happy to have a chat with you about your experience with social work in Lithuania. Thank you for having me for invitation. That's really nice. Yeah, I would love to know firstly what got you into social work. When did you start? I sometimes joke that maybe becoming a social worker was simply meant to be for.

me. And actually before I even finished school, I had already been accepted to study leisure management in Denmark. But by the time I graduated, I realized that it wasn't really what I wanted anymore. So instead, I went to England for a summer job. And while I was there, I just applied to study social work in Lithuania. And what's interesting, that social work was the only program I applied for. I didn't really have a plan B. So I just knew that I wanted a profession where I could work closely with people and where helping others would be the main thing. And I think about it that it comes from my family because my mother and my grandmother were always very strong examples for me. I grew up like seeing whatever the circumstances is,

If someone needs help, you help them. So that attitude really inspired me and shaped me the way I see other people. So at the time, I probably didn't fully understand where this career would take me or what social work really is. But looking back now, it really feels like I chose really the right path for me. And did you know anyone before you started studying that was a social worker or was doing something similar? Did you have any role models to look for? No, I think in Lithuania, at the time that I started to study, it was like a stigma around going that social workers, I don't know, take children

from families and doesn't do anything else. So in my family also, when I said I started to study social work, it was very different opinions on that. So it was really new for everyone, for me and for people around me. Do you feel like you having gotten into social work has changed their opinion of that? Oh really, yes. I am that person that changes opinion on social work in general and especially people with disabilities. I really changed and shaped different part how they see disability now. Yeah, nice. I'm wondering having traveled now in Lithuania and learned a bit about your and sort of the holdover from Soviet era. And this might be too difficult to question.

I'm just kind of curious now. Do you feel as though the establishment of the profession post-Soviet in terms of development has shifted? Do you think that there's still a lot of that in how social work was developed? How do you think social work works within Lithuania? Because you also have a very strong sense of nationalism and pride. and working together in general. So I'm wondering where social work fits

in that sort of political idealism spectrum. I think it really changed. And now social work is more recognizable. And government and people see that social work is really needed these days. Because in later times, I think it just was shaped in very negative view. and now it becomes like more positive and people can see that social workers can really make different and very positive changes in the government or just in general with people. So I'm really glad it changed.

Yeah, for sure. And what was your, I guess, introduction to social work like and what's the structure of the degree? Can you kind of walk me through what your understanding? undergraduate program was and I believe you did master's after that. So what was that whole process like for you? I think the bachelor's was the social work theory. The main thing, I studied in college, so it was a lot of practice that we did. So it really helped to shape for me what social work is, but really the biggest thing I learned just when I started working actually. Because what I learn, you need like to change depending on people because not everything works for everyone.

Yeah. So it's really like creative job. And right now I'm doing my master's. I didn't finish it yet, but I really hope I will finish next year. Okay. My next question was, do you have to have completed a master's in social work before you can practice like you do in, say, the US? but no, your bachelor degree is sufficient to start practicing.

Yes, yes, yes. And right now they're making a change is actually to let people who study social work to already start working when you're doing bachelor's degree, but you didn't finish, but you can start like work. Nice. And get the practice that you need. So why do a master's? What's different about that?

What are you hoping to achieve through that? I think master's degree is a challenge. for me because I really already know a lot about social work. I really work a lot in practice for like eight years now. So I really have good understanding what I'm doing. And master's degree is just to grow academically, I think. And right now with my new position that I work, my master's thesis is about that. So it's really interesting for me because the position I'm working, it's new for me. So through that, I can just explore more and just have a little more understanding and research more. Yeah, nice.

What's your focus? What are you hoping to research? Yeah, I'm doing research about people who have restricted legal capacity. And I want to research that restoration process, how people felt before they got legal capacity, restricted during the restriction and after they get the legal capacity back. Well, that's fascinating to me. It's something similar that I've researched in the Australian context. So, oh, that's really nice. You'll have to pick your brain about that a little bit. And working in disability is so rewarding and gives you options to learn a lot more, I think,

in terms of how systems and structures treat and respond to those sorts of challenges. Yeah, so in Lithuania, it was a lot of restriction for people with disabilities in order to protect people. But later on, you didn't think that it just becomes very negative thing, and you just completely ruin person's autonomy. Yeah, and it can be really difficult to lift those restrictions once they're in place. Yes. All right, I'm jumping forward a bit of, because I'm so excited, about your research but if you can take me back to when you were doing your practical experience at

university how did that shape what you then wanted to do are you doing something similar or maybe was your first role something similar to your practical while you were at university while i was in university i did practice with elder people but i saw that i couldn't work with that group of people. I don't know what was the reasons, but our lectures said that you will find through practice the group of people you can work with. So I just found that I couldn't do that. And I started my practice with people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities. And I came in and was like, wow, I will work here until my last days. It's a perfect place for me. me. I just literally felt that I found the place I want to be. I found the ways to make a connection

with people very easily. So it was really, really good. And after the practice, I stayed to work there, and I work for that day center six years. So this really helped me build that foundation of who I am as a social worker. I learned how important it is to build genuine, relationships with a person to understand their individual needs, to see their strengths and abilities rather than focusing on their disability. And such a good way to build confidence as well as a budding social worker to get that practical as a student. So you don't have to go through, I mean, there probably was a recruitment process, but just knowing that you already know how to do what you were doing, but this time you're just getting paid for it and hopefully learning

having more responsibility obviously but you don't have to go through the process that a new recruit would have to go through you can kind of just hit the ground running yeah during the practice i already learned everything i need to do so it was easy start for me that's so great and why did you decide to leave that role what brought you to where you are now i really enjoyed that work but after several years I started to feel that I wanted to grow professionally and challenge myself a little bit and experience another side of the social work. This is when I started working as a supported decision-making specialist at the agency for the protection of the rights of persons with disabilities. It's really a hard name. So we have the shortening. It's ANTA. So my position is part of

national project focused on the transition from institutional care to community-based services. So as I mentioned, Lithuania is currently taking important steps in changing the way legal capacity and support for people with disabilities are approached. There is a growing focus on alternatives to restricting a person's legal capacity, as well as developing new community-based services and different forms of support that allows people to remain more independent and involved in decisions about their own lives. Yeah. So for me it was really important step in my career because my work became much more focused on human rights, autonomy and the right of a person to make a decision about their own life. So instead of asking what is best for this person,

I started thinking much more, what does this person want and how I can support that. Yeah. And when you say looking at that transition, are you supporting just people who say have had their autonomy restricted and were perhaps under a guardianship structure? Or are you also looking at transition for people who might be, you said institutional care in terms of maybe zero to 18 year olds? working into adult services or is there a combination of the types of people you're supporting? It's not just people who have restricted legal capacity.

It can be like all people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities because in that role I work also as a prevention for that legal capacity restriction. Nice. So before they get to that point, even. Yeah. Even if we don't have like full restriction, we have like categories now where people or court can decide the categories where persons legal capacity is restricted. So now they just not write fully, but just categories and those categories are like all

of them. So it doesn't really make sense. Right. So in the state that I live in, we have, we call it the New South Wales Civil. and administrative tribunal who are responsible for making decisions around capacity and guardianship and financial management. And within that, there are different time schedules that they can impose and there are also different structures that they can suggest. So you might, as a social worker, be making a recommendation to NCAT to say this person needs assistance because of a disability

and we have to gather all the evidence around that from the treating team, we have made a decision that the person has difficulties understanding the information presented and communicating their wishes to make decisions around where they might live, what services they receive, medical, dental, etc. Then there's also a separate category for people who might need assistance to make financial decisions. And then the tribunal can suggest a limitation

such as a 12-month period, and then they'll come back 12 months later and say, okay, what's changed? Do we need to implement a longer period under that restriction? So do you have something similar when you're saying you've got different categories? I'm wondering if that's the same. Yeah, yeah, it is similar.

The guardianship, mostly it is like the parents take care of all the things. So they decide which parts, everyday life or financial things. So there is those categories where it's just applied how in which part it is restricted. You can also get a supported decision, not specialist, but supported decision person. Yep. But that person usually is like someone very close. So it's really difficult because people still depend on that other person's opinion, not on their own. So it doesn't really work. All right. And so part of your role, as you said, is trying to prevent getting that substitute decision maker appointed.

But once the person is appointed, then trying to see how is that person progressing and to what degree do they have autonomy or at least how are they being consulted in matters that concern them? Yeah. So when I work with people, so my work is very different. Every time I usually meet with people with disabilities and topics can be very like it can be health, finances, employment, everyday life, relationships or communication with different institutions. Yeah. So someday I can just help to prepare for doctor's appointment, which is I had recently, for example, was doing fake MRI test. I was doing like the sounds and the person was preparing.

because he was so afraid to do that. So it's very different. I can be like talking about finding a job or managing the money, becoming more independent, how to pay for utilities, because people have never done that. My other colleagues have people who have restricted the capacity. So it's their work, it's a little bit different. At the moment I don't have those cases.

So my colleagues who have, so they have need to start looking for evidence to prove that they can do different things in life and they can do with support. And later with our other colleagues, we prepare for papers for the court so that legal restriction can be lifted. That's so important. How many people do you support at one time? Is it a large caseload that you're responsible for? Yeah, we need to have 10 people, but usually we have more. At the moment I have 13. Okay. And it's very different for everyone, like for one you don't need to see every day or just once a week. For someone you need meeting two times a week, three times a week. It depends

really on the situation. Yeah, and if you're preparing paperwork for any of these applications, it's a lot of work, so it would take a lot of time. Yeah. So we make a plan if there is a case like that we make a plan and we have six months to collect all the information the paperwork that person have talked with the guardians and just collect everything we can so we can help person in that case that's so good that you have that time i'm just thinking back to when i was preparing these in the hospital setting and there was a lot of urgency as you can understand around if we can't make these decisions the person can't leave hospitals so and for that reason perhaps it wasn't as thorough the process as it should have been or could have been whereas you've

actually got the time to really get everything together so that by the time you get to the hearing or to the meeting the people have all the information that they need to make a decision yeah when they're making a restriction they always just to have medical point of view and it's like the base that they make a decision to restrict that legal capacity and we are here to change that and just to show people that doesn't matter of the medical things with right support person can do really good in life on their own yeah nice are there a lot of people in your team and are they all social workers or is it kind of a mix of professions but we have mix of professions because our organization wanted to find different people.

Yeah. Because sometimes social workers have that thing I know better for a person, that very caring and empath heart can sometimes make a decision not intentionally for that person. So I think it's really good that someone who don't have like social work experience can join in and start working with people. But I think social work for me is a plus because I really have a lot of knowledge how to communicate with person. So it really helps me. I don't need to like waste time finding ways to get to the communication side. I can already like start doing my work. Yeah, nice. Yeah, I'm I'm the only social worker in my team and sometimes when I'm having discussions with some

of my team members who are all different allied health backgrounds, we butt heads of little bit because we have very different interpretation of something or a different idea of how something could go. But every single time without fail, I will finish the conversation with something like, thank you so much for bringing a different perspective and for challenging the way that I might think through a problem, because ultimately that's how we learn. That's how we grow professionally. If we keep doing the same thing every day, you're not benefiting anyone. Yeah, I think it's really good to have like different opinions and to shape it around. It's good to disagree and just find different perspectives. So it's really important. Yeah. What do you think it is though about

social work that makes you a good fit for this role? As I mentioned in the first place, I think it's in me that I can find ways to communicate with people very easily. What does our training provide that's different even? What do we learn at university that might have prepared you for this point? I think the most important thing is to see a person, not the disability, not something like, I don't know, medical record that you read before meeting with person. Like Vistory or other social workers told you about the person, oh, it will be so difficult. You just go in that meeting with zero expectations and just learning and gathering that information, yourself and just make your own assumptions and your own opinion.

I think it's the most powerful tool we can use. And sometimes we forget because, oh, it's easier. My colleague told me about that person, I already know everything. But you go in contact with that person and it's different. Yeah. Well, and you might find that someone responds differently to you going in a room and introducing yourself as a social worker. So they might be more willing to talk to you about things or less willing because of some sort of stigma or preconceived idea of what you're there to do.

So, yeah, people tell you different things. And sometimes that's the benefit of having that rounded approach to understanding what someone's experiencing. Yeah, and I think it's important not to show the power that you have within yourself. When you walk in, like you have that label social worker and some people might be a, of you might be afraid to open up to really talk about the struggles so they just like in such a bad place when you walk in as a person with intention to talk with the person it's different yeah how do you manage everything you're working and studying how do you balance everything I try to I also work in the social workshops as well so it really balances out my first work with human rights. Yeah. You'll have to tell me about the workshops as well.

Yeah. So my main focus is I am a marketing manager during social workshops. So it's called a psychosocial center, Noya Praja, which means new start. Yeah. So in that position, I can really use the other side of myself, which is like creativity, communication and finding ways to make people with disabilities, their abilities and their achievements more visible to the society. Because working in that position brings out different side of me.

So I do social media posts, visual content, different creative ideas connected with people who have disabilities. And it's really nice thing to be where people are growing because social workshops are based on people come in with intention to find a job and to go in real workplace. They're going in workshops, they're training to come at the exact time that they need to come, prepare lunch for themselves and do meaningful tasks. So one of them is sewing, so they did like a tote bag. I helped them design those logos. So we cut out that with the machine and stick it on the tote bag. So going back to the question, how I managed

to do everything. It's hard. I cannot lie. It's really hard sometimes. But I know why I am doing this. It is really important for me. It is really interesting for me to be in this journey. I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to do all those things. So I think now, the time to do all the things in my career that I can do best and later on I can just rest. Yeah. In my experience, we never really rest, but the intention is there. I get it. Yeah. Yeah. What support do you need though to be able to make that realistic? Who helps the helper? I think my family really helps me. Like they see how it is important for me, how hard I'm trying. They see all the tears behind the cameras at home if there is a hard day.

So they really know how it is important for me. So it's really good that I have that really strong support that say, go on, you can do this, rest a little bit, sleep a little bit, and everything will be okay. You will sort this out eventually. Yeah, nice. And what's the most challenging thing for you? what do you find hardest about either this job or about social work in general? I think it's hard, as I mentioned, as social workers, we naturally want to protect people.

And sometimes you can see this situation and think I know what would be better for a person. But in supported decision making, I have to take a step back and ask myself, it is really what the person wants or this is what I want for them. Yeah. So sometimes a person make a decision that I would never make myself. And I still have to respect that because my role is to make sure that they understand the information, the possible consequences and have like different options. But in the end, I have to support that decision. So it's really challenging sometimes.

And another challenging thing is changing attitude around the person. Right. Sometimes like family members or even professionals are so used to making decisions for someone that it can be difficult to create space for that person's own voice. And often a person even themselves has become so used to asking what should I do? And they just don't even use their own voice and say, this is what I want. And that changes don't happen like overnight. So it takes time to build that confidence and trust. So I think it's the most challenging and the most meaningful thing of this work, learning not to take control.

And when taking control, even might feel easier, but you just need to take a step back. Yeah. Can you think of an example that would be appropriate to share maybe in which you had to kind of challenge a family or a substitute decision maker if you felt that the person's voice wasn't being heard? Like has there been an instance of real conflict that you've had to work through? One person wanted to get a scooter because it's easier for them to move. We are still in the process of this, but the family is saying, no, you don't.

need one why you need one you will not be able to drive it and everything so I am really trying to change that perspective and working with that person saying that you need to stand your own ground and just say this is what I want but it's really hard at the moment because that person lives in that environment he has a dream to live on his own so we waiting for opportunity to have that So I really hope it will come fast and that I think if that person will live separately from parents it would be very very different but right now there's a situation like this and I have to work with that person and just build that confidence to say no sometimes. Yeah. Because he's so

used to say yes all the time or just don't say anything because they know better. So it's trying to agitate that cycle that's being developed. Yeah. So sometimes I think I am the bad guy in that because if a person comes back home and say, oh, then or for me said I can do this. So I think I'm sometimes can be mentioned not as a good person. Yeah.

But I know what I'm doing. Yeah, well, that's the confidence and experience, right? to be able to say someone has to be the bad guy here and it's going to make me unpopular, but this is the right thing to do. Yeah. I know that you love the work that you're doing and it's very much, you know, something that you were destined to be doing from the sounds of things. But is there any other and not older people, I'm guessing,

but if there's any other kind of social work or any other kind of role that you think would be interesting to try next? I never thought about that. Actually, I am so interested. to working with people who have disabilities. But I think it will be really interesting for me to work with people who have addiction. That sounds very challenging for me, but I think that's why it sounds like interesting because I don't know a lot about that.

So I think that would be really good to try and know more. Yeah. And you said earlier you were thinking about international before social work, but do you think you might work? a different country? No, I think at the moment as I grow older, I just really like it here in Lithuania. I think when I was younger, before graduation, that ambition was really high and I just wanted the world. Right now I see that I really have a lot of to do here and I can be useful here and have a lot of impact right now.

So I'm really enjoying here and not planning to go anywhere anytime soon. Do you ever get to use any other languages? Obviously, your English is fantastic, but do you speak any other languages? Do you get to use that? No, I'm speaking Lithuanian. It's my main language and English. I use sometimes at work, but not very often.

and so it was really hard for me. A little bit rusty, maybe. Yeah. Or maybe just less confident, but I assure you that's really a very high level. Sometimes I want to say like a lot more and express myself. And in English, it's very difficult to do that. So I'm trying my best. You're doing so well.

I'm very impressed. Thank you. Are there any programs or projects that are going on for you that you haven't mentioned yet? I did say there was a publication. Can you tell me maybe about that? Yeah, it was about my bachelor's thesis. It's about social workers burnout in social work, but working with people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities.

So I chose that because I was feeling burnout. Right. And it was really important topic for me. And it really helped me because as I'm, was doing the research, I found the ways I can get help. Yeah. So it was really, really good. And I'm very thankful for the university that saw potential in this.

So we made an article about that. That's really tough, even as a student, to be experiencing burnout. And I think we find this with a lot of aspects of social work where, let's say, you spend four or five years studying and then you work for that long and then you burn out. and you think, what have I done with the last 10 years? And sometimes it feels like it's your responsibility as a social worker to deal with this. It's your responsibility to look after yourself. It's your responsibility to get supervision.

But I would argue that your organization and maybe even your affiliating body has a responsibility to invest in the future of social work by making sure that the social workers, it already has feel supported and feel respected and listen to all the things that you're trying to foster in the people that you help. Yeah, I totally agree. In university, we actually learn how to help others, but we forget about ourselves. And when you go after bachelor's degree in your first workplace, you want to save the world. You give all you can, and you just focused on that helping others, and you just forget

yourself that's so so easy to do and yeah yeah i really experienced that myself and so when i see a young person that comes into social work my first words is just take care of yourself and look very closely how you're feeling because it's really important if anyone wanted to know more about the type of social work you do where would you direct them are there any good resources or things that they can look at or listen to? I think one of the main things is United Nations Convention on the Rights of Person Disabilities, especially Article 12, which focuses on equal recognition before the law and the right of people with disabilities to exercise their legal capacity.

This is the main thing. This is our weapon. That's the Bible. Yeah. So I also would recommend. looking into supported decision making and also difference between supported and substitute decision making because for me understanding that difference really changes the way I think about support instead of asking who can make the best decision for this person you start asking what support that person needs

to make their own decision yeah so I also really enjoy European Disability Forum and what they do. They do a lot of researches, articles that is really, really important for us. So I'm really glad it is available and I really love the campaign they did. It called Nothing About Us Without Us. So that motto keeps me going and every time I speak with other colleagues and if we discuss persons case, always think about that we need to talk with that person what we're doing because we cannot decide without that person. Yeah, so important. I think those three is like the main things and the biggest like inspiration and biggest teachers are the people I work with.

Yeah. Yeah. I'll find those resources and I'll pop them in the show notes so people can go off and have a look at themselves. In Lithuania, are there any representations, whether it's positive, negative, inaccurate of social workers? Do you see anywhere in the media or TV or movies? I'm wondering if there is representation and what that looks like. I think it's changing how people view social workers, but sometimes if there is, I don't know, public case of child rights and there is like news

article somewhere you can see in the comment section that it's crazy. Everything bad is about social worker and you think that's not the case but it sometimes happens I think a lot of people still have that negative point of view that's a shame I think when social workers need to do that uncomfortable tasks it just for people is shows like very negative they don't see like the positive things we do they only see like I can say negative but in their it's negative. Sure. Yeah. It's a lot of stuff that's got heightened emotion and as you said, restricting potentially, but they don't understand, they might not understand the reason behind why that has to happen in the moment. Yeah. And even about supported decision making, when I start

working, I needed to introduce myself in different institutions. And my introduction was not very successful everywhere. Okay. So because they're thinking for me like I am the enemy and okay you will lift that restriction, what next you will take care of that person who will be responsible for that person. And don't even see the different point of view, the alternatives that we can create around that. So they see just like the worst case scenario in that thing.

Yeah. So it was really hard. Yeah, it is really hard to change other people's ingrained impression of the profession. But I think what you said before in terms of instead of focusing on what is best for the person, focusing on what do they want, and then you feel as though at the end of the day, you've done everything you can and you've found creative ways to help people to become more visible. So it might not be understood necessarily at the time, but I'm sure you've got cases that you can think of in the past where someone was very agitated,

argumentative, very against having some sort of order or process in place. And then maybe after the fact they've come back to you and said, I understand it now. Thank you so much for helping me through that process. It makes sense and it was needed. You probably have some situations like that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and that makes it worthwhile. You think, okay, I felt like a horrible person.

I was yelled at or whatever, but I know that I did what I needed to do and now that person recognizes and hopefully that person is protected against they might have been vulnerable, they might have been subject to otherwise, they might have been financially vulnerable or exploited in some other way. So we have the ability, as you said, to step back from the process, from the person and see the context of what's happening around them, even if it makes us the bad guy sometimes. Yeah, I think you should have like very strong identity. Like you really need to know who you are and what you're doing. Because in other way, other institutions or professionals can shape you however they want to, like how it is comfortable for them. Yeah. So you have to

stand your ground and sometimes yeah, you need to be a bad guy. Mm-hmm. And before we finish up, Dinora, is there anything that you wished I'd asked you or? or anything you feel like we haven't had a chance to talk about? I'm thinking about the board game that I made. Oh, yeah. Tell me about that. Yeah, that was inspired about my role in supported decision making. Okay.

Because I needed to talk about human rights, independence, decision making, but that information for me was very formal. And I saw that it was really difficult for people to understand. When you talk about legal capacity, they just popped their eyes out and thinking what you're talking about. Because they never heard of that. And I started thinking, how can I talk about those things in a way that feels practical, engaging, and connected to the real life? So that's why I designed a game, the board game. There is three types of cards in the game.

It's rights, support, and situations. cards. The questions and the situations are based on everyday life. They encourage players to think about their rights, what choices they have, what they could do in different situations. And it was really eye-opening for me when I did the prototype and I tested with the first group. There was so many discussions going around and people listening to each other's stories. It's like, no, I don't agree. You can do this but my mother don't let me it was so so good to hear that discussion going on so I was thinking the way I can make it possible like to other professionals to use and the game was produced by social workshops I'm really grateful and thankful for them they supported the game financially

to make it to make 50 copies of that. So all my colleagues on support the decision making or daycare centers can buy that and use with people and talk about rights. So it's really, really important thing for me and I'm really grateful I get the chance to do that. What an incredible thing to have created. Not only are you passionate, but you're creative. And I guess that's what you were hoping to find in the first place by studying social work, right, is wanting to find a space where you can support others, but also look at your passion of marketing and just thinking about how do you formulate something in a way that makes sense to people. But it's a very cool legacy. And hopefully the uptake and the ability for people to start using it in their settings will continue to grow.

And then you might get an order for more than 50 and it will just keep expanding. Yeah, it was really nice to get the first reviews. that it is very useful tool and it makes a lot of discussion and makes easier. For example, even if you start with person, like this is your first conversation, you take that game and it opens every door in that discussion. And you know so much more information than just in regular conversation. Yeah. Is there a website where people can order it maybe or see what it looks like or we're not

quite at that point yet. You can see at the Psychosocial Activity Center, Noya Proje, it's a Facebook page. Okay. And they have like the posts about the game. Yeah, nice. All right. I'll definitely find that. Yeah, so you can see how it visually looks. We had a little promo video for people to buy. That's amazing. So I'm really, really glad for that opportunity. Yeah. Such good support that you have behind you, but also I'm sure that they see you as an incredible asset to the team. So well done on getting to this point in a relatively short time in your career. You've developed so much and been able to contribute so much. Thank you.

And I've loved the opportunity to hear about it. I'm so grateful that you could talk to me and that I could get to know you and your social work career and just so grateful for your time and for you to meet with me. Thank you so much for the invitation. It was a pleasure. I was so nervous, but it was really, really good to talk about that. And I'm really glad that people from Australia and other different countries that are listening can hear what's happening around here in Lithuania.

So I'm really, really glad. And I started listening to other podcasts that you upload. So it's really interesting to find that different opinions, different works. and situations in different countries, so it's really interesting, yeah. Yeah, I'm glad you're able to get something out of it as well, and it is interesting how many differences there are, but also how many similarities, not just the kind of person who might study social work,

but also the way we approach things in general and our values, and, yeah, there are so many similarities still across the different countries. Yeah, so really, thank you. It was really nice. Thanks for joining. me this week. If you'd like to continue this discussion or ask anything of either myself or Dynora, 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 Spotlightpodcast at gmail.com. I'd love to hear from you.

That's a wrap on my series of international episodes, and I hope you've enjoyed getting to know my guests around the world as much as I have. Next episode's guest is Sina, the first in my new season of Australian social workers. Sina is an accredited mental health social worker based in Brisbane who has worked in the human services sector for over 15 years. Sina is a first generation Gujarati woman born and raised in England but now living in Australia and she brings an appreciation of how culture, identity, relationships and lived experience shape people's stories. I release a new episode every two weeks. Please subscribe to my podcast so you are notified when this next episode is available.

See that.