Some community health workers in Donga Mantung recently benefitted from a three-day intense training on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support. It took place from 19th to 21st December 2022 at the BAPCCUL Conference Hall located behind the grandstand, towards the Fon’s Palace Nkambe.
Funded by The SERRA FOUNDATION and carried out by H4BF, the training was aimed at building the capacity of Community Health Workers (CHW) with relevant skills to provide counseling and psychosocial support (PSS), especially to GBV survivors and trauma victims in communities around Nkambe.
The training would equip participants with skills and knowledge to make them comfortable as caregivers working with survivors of gender-based violence and sexual violence within communities that have been affected by conflict in the region. It will also provide participants with practical and easily accessible guidelines applicable from psychosocial caregivers to GBV survivors and trauma victims during the conflict in the various communities represented and beyond.
These three days of intensive training covered both theoretical and practical modules in Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS). The modules encompassed a refresher on GBV causes and consequences and its interrelation with Psychosocial Support. The CHWs were intensively Introduced to Rape Trauma Counselling, MHPSS intervention support objectives, ethical principles and skills, the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS), The Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10), and much more.
Communities are expected to benefit from the training through their community health workers (CHW). They will be able to receive quality, accessible, and continuous mental health, and psychosocial support (MHPSS) intervention and counseling services.
Trained community health workers (CHWs) who act as community caregivers will have the relevant skills to provide counseling to GBV survivors and trauma victims in these conflict areas.
The trained community health workers will be able to carry out community psychosocial awareness and trauma-healing programs. They will be able to determine the severity of cases by distinguishing between Depression, Anxiety, and Stress using the DASS scale. Community health workers (CHW) will now be able to carry out mental health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) interventions with little or no external assistance given the level of insecurity and inaccessibility to some of these communities.
