"Place your right hand on your heart, and the left on your stomach. Breathe in and breathe out."
It is not often that a social work panel discussion starts with breathwork.
In the ancient Indian language Sanskrit, 'breath' is called 'swas', which also happens to be the name of a new group for South Asian social workers, whose launch event began with this breathing exercise.
SWAS (Solidarity, Wisdom, Aspiration, Safety), a collective of social workers and allied professionals from South Asian backgrounds, was launched last week during South Asian Heritage Month. In keeping with the origins of its name, its motto is 'inhale strength, exhale change'.
It initially began last year as a support circle, in which a group of social workers held monthly online meetings to come together to talk, reflect and support each other.
The aim of the group is to represent a collective identity among practitioners of South Asian heritage and enable them to talk about work openly and safely to other professionals who understand the nuances of their respective backgrounds.
Why South Asian?
According to the 2021 Census, there are over five million people in the UK from South Asian backgrounds, making up the largest minority group.
South Asia covers countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and contains a large variety of religions, languages and traditions. There are many differences between each of the cultures and religions but also many similarities.
In this context, a panel of speakers at the launch explored their shared experience of not belonging in other spaces, due to being overlooked, ignored and experiencing some form of racism or discrimination, in their lives and careers.
The panel included the core founders of SWAS, Nimal Jude, Noshin Mohamed, Chandni Tanna, Mayuri Mistry and Meeta Chaudhary, who explained why they felt the need to start this project.
'The pain of being silenced'
Mohamed, a principal social worker, said: “We’ve listened to South Asian practitioners talk about how assessments too often miss the bigger picture. We’ve heard about support that doesn’t quite land, about systems that don’t fully see us, about safeguarding responses that don’t feel safe.
“About the children overlooked. About the adults unheard. We’ve heard how hard it’s been to speak up and how painful it is when you’re spoken over, silenced, or simply met with silence.”
Mistry, a social worker who works in workforce development, added: "We want to amplify the voices of communities who look like us and feel like us."
Overcoming stereotypes
The panel said that stereotypes about South Asian culture were rife and could have adverse effects on children and families.
Jude, head of practice development at Foundations, the what works centre for children's services, said one of the reasons that SWAS was formed was because of concern around how some South Asian families were being treated by services.
She gave an example of how some children were being mistreated by a parent, but practitioners overlooked it because they assumed it was part of their culture.
“SWAS was born out of a need to speak up about the issues facing South Asian families in the U.K. and how social work and allied professionals could be more thoughtful in their practice with these families," said Jude.
“We were increasingly hearing from South Asian practitioners that assessments of families could be more holistic and support offered was not always targeted to the needs."
Taboo subjects
A 2023 report commissioned by the NHS Race and Health Observatory found that Bangladeshi, Pakistani and ‘Other Asian’ ethnic groups had worse outcomes from mental health services than other minoritised ethnic groups.
Mental health is one of many taboo subjects in South Asian cultures, making it harder for people to access the support they need.
Issues like child sexual abuse and belonging to the LGBTQ community can be difficult for young people from South Asian families to talk about.
“We heard of situations when children were not being treated appropriately in schools, and issues such as mental health, domestic abuse and kinship care were not being supported with the understanding of the unique barriers facing South Asian families," Jude added.
“Practitioners were telling us, they found it hard to speak up and when they did they were ignored, spoken over and hushed."
Chaudhary spoke about the myth of South Asians being seen as a “model minority”, due to perceived success in school and careers, resulting in less recognition of harm and abuse.
She said there were often “blind spots” in social work practice when it came to South Asian young people, and that these young people did not always have spaces to go to where they were understood.
Need for professional curiosity
The panel shared the need for social workers to always be curious in practice as they felt some non-South Asian practitioners were scared to ask questions in case they may offend or come across as racist.
In future, the group hopes to mentor new social workers of South Asian backgrounds coming into the sector.
You can find out more about SWAS on its LinkedIn page.
