New Delhi, Oct 9 (Inditop.com) With the World Mental Health Day to be observed Saturday, the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre organised a five-day workshop to discuss the formation of guidelines for peer counsellors to help rehabilitate spinal injury patients. The workshop concluded Friday.
Peer counsellors, who are themselves disabled, help others cope with their injuries and disabilities by counselling them. Since they have been through the same phase, they can counsel them better by narrating their experiences, thus forming a crucial part of the rehabilitation programme of patients.
H.P.S. Ahluwalia, former Everester and chairman of the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, said: “Given the high number of spinal injury patients, there is a need for proper peer counselling in order to help the distressed patients and rehabilitate them.”
According to experts, in order for them to come in terms with reality fast, spinal injury patients need to know when would they start having control over their bodies and physiological activities like bowel and bladder movement, even over their sexual performance.
Chitra Kataria, a doctor, said: “Any healthy person who was normally walking around, gets a shock when he is told that he may never walk again. He will be depressed, helpless and may even contemplate suicide”.
“The role of a peer counsellor, therefore, along with the psychologist, becomes very crucial in deciding the time of breaking the bad news to the patient and in helping him cope with the changed life,” she said.
Statistics show that in India, spinal cord injuries mostly happen to people in the most productive age group of 20-40 years. 75 percent of them are men.
Until now, most hospitals have their own in-house training for peer counsellors. But now experts and peer counsellors here and that of the Asian Spinal Cord Network- which has members from 74 countries including Nepal and Sri Lanka- have drafted guidelines for a proper training programme for such counsellors.
“The aim is to draft the clear requirements to become a peer counsellor and the kind of uniform training that they need to take. The draft guidelines, once decided upon, will be certified by the Asian Spinal Cord Network,” Ahluwalia added.
The Asian Spinal Cord Network is an umbrella group of organisations working on spinal injury management.
rounak