Mental Health services – a crucial aspect of Health Care – Clinical Social Worker

Sep 16, 2014 News

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While Social Work may be seen as a simple enough task that many persons may opt to

embrace, Clinical Social Work on the other hand is viewed as an advanced level of social work that incorporates tactics intended to help further cater to the health and wellbeing of an individual.
And this crucial task is one that is readily offered at the Campbellville Health Centre, one of the country’s leading health facilities that falls under the purview of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).  And the resident Clinical Social Worker at the Health Centre is Ms Nicole Cole.
Cole, during a recent interview with this publication, shared the wide scope of her mandated role which entails counselling at the health facility in the areas of suicide, domestic violence, family planning, positive parenting and teenage pregnancy.  But these are just some of the issues to which Cole is expected to offer her counselling expertise.
Another interesting issue that often grabs the undivided attention of the Clinical Social Worker is that of child sexual abuse. In alluding to Article 19 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Cole quoted that “every child has a right to protection from violence and abuse.”
And abuse, she related, could be as simple as telling a child “you are stupid.”  With such verbal abuse Cole intimated that “mentally you have already killed that child’s self-esteem. They may not be able to excel at school…so I encourage parents not to do this, and some of them don’t even understand that this is abuse,” added Cole.
Cole also has in place a strategic teenager-counselling programme that caters specifically to making teenagers aware of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Pointing to a poster in her modest office, Cole noted that through such means she is able to “bring home lots of persons to the reality that it (STIs among teenagers) exists.”
But according to Cole, “the mental health component cannot be stressed enough…there are many persons who are faced with many stressful situations and I have helped to mitigate them from suicidal ideation.”
“Just by having someone to talk to,” can make a great difference in some persons lives, said Cole, as she pointed out “we must never downplay the importance of talk; talk is vital.”
“Many people do the things that they do because they have nobody to talk to…I am here and I go beyond the call of duty just to ensure that things are addressed…whether it is elderly abuse to see what is going on…whether it is a child who is malnourished and I am being called upon because the parent is ill and is perhaps in hospital just to intervene and ensure that family members pay attention,” said Cole.
Moreover, her task at the Campbellville Health Centre is a rather extensive one as it not only entails Clinical Social Work but the general aspects of Social Work as well, which includes mentoring young people or even giving talks to school children.
Ms Cole, a holder of a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Guyana, was placed at the Health Centre under a National AIDS Programme Secretariat project funded by Global Fund. She has been stationed at the Health Centre for the past seven years because of the recognised need for the mental health component of health delivery. Since the primary initial focus of the project was intended to help encourage adherence among persons infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Cole said that her role was to ensure that “they stayed on their medications to make the ARVs effective.”
She also has a role to promote measures that can be taken if a person is raped to ensure that they are treated for possible HIV infection using Post-exposure Prophylaxis (PEP). And according to Cole, “a very important part of what I do here is to have patients understand that if you are raped you can come and get PEP within 72 hours.”
In dealing with HIV/AIDS related issues too, Cole utilises information Education Communication (IEC) coupled with Behavioural Change Communication as part of her process of catering to her many clients.
In fact, since her placement at the facility, Cole has been able to introduce three non-medicinal techniques to treat depression – Play, Art and Music therapies. Moreover, she has been collaborating with the Burrowes School of Art where authentic art courses have been offered to some clients thus far who were certified upon completing courses. The offering of the courses also gained support from the Guyana Red Cross and the Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints. Through this venture Cole said, “21 women are better able to help themselves because part of HIV/AIDS is the stigma and discrimination they face and some of them cannot get jobs because of their illness.”

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