Underprivileged children need psychosocial care

"The children in Bangladesh are exposed to hazardous and risky conditions, abuse and exploitation, inter and intra-border trafficking, gender discrimination and related violence but there is no separate national institution for providing psychosocial assistance," said Khursheed Erfan Ahmed of Ain O Salish Kendra in her speech on 'Psycho-social support: Structure and mechanism.'

The two-day conference was inaugurated by Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain at Biam auditorium.

The conference was organised jointly by Save the Children Sweden Denmark (SCSD) and Psycho-Social Support Group.

Admitting the prevailing shortfalls in psychosocial assistance in government hospitals, the minister said, "Rate of disordered people is on the rise, it is now 16.05 percent, up from 6.5 percent in 1979, and among them the most vulnerable sector, the children, remains unrecognised."

The Action Plan for children, though, emphasised the urgency of providing psychosocial care to the children, the pace of its implementation is not at all satisfactory, he said, adding that the medical colleges concentrate more on providing clinical help.

He however promised to render help to any such initiative.

Dr Naila Zaman of child development and neurology department of Dhaka Shishu Hospital and chairman of Shishu Bikash Kendra, said the assistance should be rendered to young women too since during the pre-natal stage about 60 percent women were found with psychiatric morbidity.

During the discussion session, Dr Mehtab Khanam of Psychology department and Kamal U A Chowdhury, lecturer of Clinical Psychology department of Dhaka University explained the definition of psychosocial care, role of counselling, characteristics of counsellors and goals to participants.

AKM Mustaque Ali, executive director of INCIDIN Bangladesh, informed the audience about the activities of non-government organisations at grassroots level in this regard.

Talking to The Daily Star, Selina Ahmed, programme officer of SCSD, said the goal of the conference is to set modalities for ethical standards and widening skills for specialisation in specific counselling needs.

She said the SCSD has already framed a draft with the assistance of Ain O Salish Kendra in this respect where the recommendations of this seminar would be incorporated and forwarded to all the stake holders including ministries concerned.

Sayeedul Hoque Milky, project officer of Child Development and Education Section, said, " We need counsellors for about two lakh children involved in hazardous works who will have to play a tripartite role among the children, parents and employers, but I'm afraid, if so many counsellors would be available."

Olof Risberg, country representative, and Kristine Zeuthen Jeppesen of SCSD, Prof Dr AH Mohammad Firoz, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, Farida Akhtar, chief executive of Inner Force , Shekh Zadi Rezina Parvin, counsellor of CDC-DSH, also spoke on the occasion.