#HerCovidStory
This is a story of a psychologist currently practicing in KP. She has participated in 3-days online training conducted by Rozan under a project “GBV and Psychosocial Support for women and girls during the COVID-19 outbreak. She mentioned that 3-days training has improved her knowledge & skills to a great deal. According to her, this training not only helped her in building a capacity to deal with COVID-19 patients but also enabled her to provide all possible support to survivors of violence in the current situation of lock down. She stated;
‘I have learned ethics, effects of GBV and its relevance in COVID-19. We learned during training that in any disaster or epidemic whether it is man-made or natural, GBV cases increase that applies to the current situation also. The information I received about GBV issues with relevance to COVID-19 and mental health, therefore, is of great significance for me.
Currently, we are dealing with many cases of mental disorders and anxiety. In these days anxiety is increased not just in women & children but in men & boys especially students. Many client come with panic attacks and as a counselor or psychologist, we could not understand how to respond. The training we received has enhanced our skills in this area and we will be using these while dealing with such clients.’
According to her, one of the important learning from this training is the ability to explain to the clients the basic parenting skills that she found challenging in her clinical practice. She shared that many women who visited the facility were stressed because during lock down when children are at home, it was a challenge to handle them. The children used to irritate parents who also mistreat them out of anger and frustration. This leads to rebellious and defiant behavior in children. The training capacitated her to guide parents especially mothers how they can spend quality time with their children in quarantine keeping in mind their mental and emotional health.
She also expressed gratitude on learning the skills that can help her in dealing with COVID-19 patients directly. She stated ‘I am directly dealing with COVID Patients and the knowledge I gained through this training is quite helpful in that. I am providing my services to those who are currently in quarantine or isolation or have been in quarantine in the past and also to their families. I have visited some families who were tested positive and also those who were suspected to have positive results. They were suffering from stress, grief, anxiety and depression. At that time, I did not have any idea how to help them to deal with these. I was doing all the steps that need to be done as a psychologist’s perspective but the support that needs to be provided in the specific situation of COVID-19 was lacking. The skills we have learnt through this training including Psychosocial First Aid and psychosocial support helped me in this aspect.’
She shared that she learned about safety planning of survivors of violence if receive GBV cases in COVID-19 and lock down situation which enables her now to ensure safety and service provision to the survivors of violence. She thanked the training teams and organizers saying that ‘I appreciate ROZAN and UNFPA for providing a learning opportunity which not only enhanced our knowledge in the field but builds our capacity to deal with the survivors of violence so we can contribute our share in reducing GBV cases’.
