Effective Communication

This Is Very Suitable

All of us at work was summoned to attend the training provided by the Training Department People at Head Office today.Kalau tak pasal project I takde problem, harus ku ignore aje inter office memo yang indirectly memaksa kitorang attend training ni.

Kami kat office, masih lagi under scrutiny. Hal 'inappropriate' technique of delivering service masih belum reda so,boss I tiap-tiap minggu hantar email tanya about my weekly action plan.Macam le kerja aku ni menjaga anak kambing Nani.

I don't usually work Fridays.Hari Jumaat lah yang dah di'spare'kan untuk study and mengumpul clinical hours I. Tapi, bila dah kerja full time dengan orang ni, sometimes loyalty takleh kena divide, nak-nak bila tengah crisis.So, mahu tak mahu, I pon kenalah call in sick kat my college supervisor, kata I takleh datang for my clinical session. I ni, memang sungguh cekap menipu dalam telepon.Yelah..orang tak nampak muka kita masa tengah mengarang cerita-cerita airmata pelesu tu.Mati kalau kena karang cerita pelesu depan muka orang.I ni bangsa tak pass tipu depan-depan.It will show all over my face, you.

Tajuk training untuk hari ni ialah 'Effective Communication'.Whatever that mean.I like the trainer.Dalam hati,kalau le Kak Prag ada dalam training room tu, misti dia syok.This guy is openly gay man in the Training Department,muka pun boley tahan and most importantly, boroi.Not ugly boroi but pleasantly boroi.Takpelah..bukan rezeki Kak Prag.

I can understand why this training is provided for us.Mainly to enlighten the effective way to communicate and to emphasis the politically correct way to communicate with the one with disability.It's like to teach parents not to call their kids 'bodoh' but to replace it with 'Oh anakku ini kurang bijak'.

Point taken.It's all nice written down and voguely presented in the handouts but I doubt that it can be materialised in the real world of disability...if you know what I mean.

Okay.Case study number one. I have a client who is diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenic.Have been institutionalised for years and only been released back into community 3 years ago, but with 24 hours support.The problems...he sometimes hears 'voices' that urged him to stay longer in bed and during the reign of the voices in his head,he managed to make himself look like an ape and smells like a dead rat.

Listen to this.Because of this lapse, he is now mentally unstable and physically ill. As his care coordinator, it is your duty of care to get help even if he refused. You spent hours talking him out of his bed. He ignores you through and through. Fine.

One day, he approached you.He tells you that he wants to go out and get something from the shop and wants you to help.Okay, you think and you said.That's not a problem.But knowing very well that he would attract massive attention from the way he looks (planet of the apes, from his unshaven beard) and smells (astaghfirullahalazim)
you think that he should first do something about his appearance.Agree? No, he didn't think so.Being his aid, you know very well how he will feel in his schizoid mind when people starts staring and stepping away.You can see more problems coming.He is still adamant about not cleaning himself.

This is what I normally do.I will say, alright.You're not getting my help unless you have your personal care first.If you do that, then I will help you.Sounds fair?

Emm...I used to think so.And today, in the 'Effective Communication' training, we were told that you can't do that.We were also told that by saying that (making him clean himself first or we are not going out) is disempowering his rights.

Do you still wonder why the crime rate is still riding high in this country? Because the criminals have rights to do what they want and you can't say anything about it. The nasty school kids can swear at the bus driver and the driver in return, can't ask them to leave the bus eventhough the school kids is deliriously abusing the other passenger with their antics.

Will it be possible to communicate effectively with those who is blissfully destructive? In the end,disrespectful and unruly behaviour is allowed. What we should all do, according to the 'smart ass' people who reckoned that we should communicate effectively is to keep 'communicate effectively'.

Try another example, your 10 years old son told you to shut up, after you caught him stealing or bullying his little brother.And you said 'Don't tell me to shut up'. By saying that to him, you're now officially depriving his right to speak up.What they expect you to say is 'Oh..I understand that you're upset Darling, but we have to talk'.

Is this a loads of bullshit and I'm simply resenting the new knowledge of communication?