Aaruj Akbar

Preferred Wages: 100 Rs. per Hour

Preferred Salary: 10000 Rs. per Month

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I have just finished a Masters degree in Forensic Mental Health at Queen Mary University London. The quality of my communication and written skills, and the quantity of workload has significantly increased in comparison to previous years and have advanced my personal standards of such skills. After completing my undergraduate course with a 2.1 I decided to dedicate a year to gaining practical experience working in the mental health sector. During that year I pursued a career as a support worker within a residential setting specialising in vulnerable women with mental health problems and past traumatic experiences. I had the opportunity to support women suffering from various mental illnesses/disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, learning disabilities, and self-harming behaviour. I provided emotional and physical support when needed, whilst encouraging these women to be as independent as possible. During the time of working full-time I wished to contribute my free time to partake in voluntary work. I decided to join the charity Samaritans. In this role, I provided emotional support to callers via telephone, emails, and face-to-face contact. It was during this period that I developed the necessary skills to de-escalate detrimental situations, such as suicidal attempts, aggressive, or hysterical callers. It was common to come in contact with callers that suffered from mental health problems. It expanded my knowledge of how the same disorder can present and impact an individual uniquely from one another. As a member of Samaritans, it is key for us to remember that we are there to listen and not advice, therefore it was important to be aware of other organisations to signpost callers appropriately. This role advanced my ability to empathise, encourage, and praise individuals for them for sharing their circumstances as this can be quite difficult to do. Furthermore, I participated in the Prisoners programme in which we interviewed and trained prisoners appropriate for the role of being a listener within the prison. There were fortnightly meetings held with these listeners within the prison to ensure that the prisoners mental health was not being negatively impacted, to provide emotional support and guidance, and record how many and types of situations the listeners provided support to. I transferred to a Samaritans branch in London to continue volunteering until late last year. When beginning my Masters I wanted to broaden my experience, by volunteering with Circles South East. This provided me the opportunity to work with sex offenders, a much stigmatized and segregated group within society. As a volunteer, I was able to develop a better understanding of such individuals without presenting my personal judgement. I assist a past sex offender to re-integrate into society. I provide emotional, and social support, whilst also providing housing/financial guidance. Circles South East approach this clientele group with a Good Lives model, which has presented to be largely successful. I conducted my dissertation on a comparison of typologies of the male sexual offending populations within the UK regarding socioeconomic factors, treatment needs and recidivism rates, using the data from Circles South East. I also decided to be a phone mentor for a sex offender that is unable to articulate his needs in English. As a fluent Punjabi/Urdu speaker I was able to communicate effectively with the individual, eliminating the language barrier. I found it was common that this group tend to lose motivation in rebuilding their lives in the community, and which could impact their mental health and the possibility of suicidal ideation and thoughts. However I encourage, motivate and support these individuals to take the necessary steps to obtain their basic needs. Through their progress, one offender works full time, his own accommodation, and a support network outside of Circles South East. The other offender is in retirement, but through the support participates in voluntary work and began an online IT course. As part of my MSc course I had to complete six months of clinical experience. I took this opportunity to gain experience within a medium security psychiatric unit John Howard Centre, specifically within the female ward. I had the opportunity to co-facilitate in the Substance Use Service Team for male and female patients. I also assisted a Forensic Psychologist to assess a new patient through interviewing and administering the HCR-20. This year I took on the role of a support worker for L&Q Living. I worked within a female refuge that specialises in learning disabilities and experienced past traumatic events, and potentially at risk of abuse. As a team, it is essential to have regular meetings to ensure we agree on how to assist our clients to achieve independence. It is our focus to ensure clients are meeting their personal goals, by assisting, and reviewing these regularly. It is common for our clients to lose focus, however we as a team collectively motivate our clients, reminding them of why they wanted to achieve it initially. As a support worker I am in regular contact with our clients’ social workers, advocate, art and drama therapists, activities co-ordinator, families, financial advisor etc. When beginning my job, I was appointed as a key worker for an outreach client. This requires developing and reviewing their support plan and risk assessment and conducting key working sessions regularly. Prior to expecting clients to openly communicate with me, I understood the importance of building a strong and positive rapport with the clients. I would plan regular activities with the clients, alternating between group and one-to-one sessions to build a relationship with each individual. I am a hard-working individual that thrives from new experiences and challenges, placing myself outside of my comfort zone. I actively look for constructive criticism, especially when taking on a new role I am unfamiliar with, and to ensure I provide excellent service and quality of care. Personally, I enjoy organising and managing my time to ensure all tasks are completed in a timely manner, and to a high standard. I am friendly and approachable individual, that always looks to the bright side of a situation, and encourages individuals to better themselves even outside of a work setting. These previous job and voluntary roles show that I am able to work individually and as part of a team.