Tuesday, March 18, 2014


Life’s just not fair...
"Whether we are physicians, chaplains, nurses, social workers, psychologists, physical therapists or occupational therapists, we have certain values and ethics, socio-cultural influences, personal life histories and memories, preconceived notions and assumptions which we in escapable bring to our work." (Katz, R.S. & Johnson, T.A., 2006)
 
 
On the weekend something terrible happened...burglars broke into our home and unfortunately my cousin was around which they were not aware of! They handled my cousin with little dignity and even threatened to kill him.  My cousin is currently suffering from PTSD and I am furious because here I am working in the community, trying to make the world a better place and then something like this happens!...IT’S JUST NOT FAIR!

 In times like these it is important to turn back to the ethics of the profession that I am pursuing as there was honestly not one cell in my body that wanted to work with the community if this was the way someone would threaten my family members. I understand that one can not and should not blame the entire community for an inconsidered decision that four people decided to make.

 How was I going to ‘not allow prejudice, or discrimination towards my clients on the basis of race, culture, language, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability socio – economic status’ ??? (OTASA, 2005)
 
Katz and Johnson suggest that the problem may be due to countertransference. This may indicate that the analysts holds onto unresolved personal problems or conflict. To me this terrible event struck up some intense conflict. They go on further by stating that examining and exploring the conflict will mean becoming honest about ones feelings. One should not shy away from becoming honest with oneself or with someone that one trusts. (Katz, R.S. & Johnson, T.A., 2006) This is good as we need to be careful and aware of the personal history that we bring into the therapist-client relationship. This I consider great insight and think that it is so so important to understand ones own issues so that one can offer the service the client deserves.

Reference
Katz, R.S. & Johnson, T.A. (2006) When the Personal and Professional Collide: Unspoken Influence of our Selves in End-of-Life Care. Routledge: New York 
Occupational Therapy Association of South Africa (OTASA). (2005). Code of ethics and professional conduct. Retrieved on March 16, 2014 from http://www.otasa.org.za/documents/code_of_ethics_2005.pdf
 
Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. HelgaMarch 24, 2014 at 1:02 PM

    As much as we have experience to convince us of things differently, in times of crisis we usually revert back to the deepest mind-sets that have been with us since our childhood and reinforced by members in society. This often has to do with stereotypes, judgements and negative events reinforce these.

    I think it is good that you are being honest about your feelings, and that you have taken an honest look at yourself. As you say, you cannot brand an entire community on what has happened. And probably within KwaDabeka and Cleremont we have the same kinds of criminals doing these injust things to the community members.

    Try not to let race define how you are thinking about the criminals, but rather to associate it with either evil (from the lack of human-ness) or look at the underlying causes of our society which have resulted in such violent crimes.

    If your emotions persist, consider speaking to someone - which may help!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)