Citation

Naved RT, Rimi NA, Jahan S, Lindmark G. J. Health Popul. Nutr. 2009; 27(4): 477-491.

Affiliation

Public Health Sciences Division, ICDDR,B, GPO Box 128, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh. ruchira@icddrb.org

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh; Centre for Health and Population Research)

DOI

10.3329/jhpn.v27i4.3391

PMID

19761082

PMCID

PMC2928104

Abstract

This paper reports on evaluation of an initiative to use paramedics as the first-level mental health counsellors of abused women in rural Bangladesh (2003-2004) from the perspective of the abused women who participated in one or more counselling sessions. Thirty in-depth interviews, followed by a survey(n=372), targeted to cover all participants, were conducted in 2006. Overall, the arrangement, management of ethical issues, and skills of paramedics were rated favourably. Most (89%) abused women (n=372) considered the session useful; one-fourth of these women considered it very useful; and only a few abused women considered the session useless. Usefulness of the session was expressed mostly in terms of relief attained after talking about the issue. Most (87%) women reported being encouraged to be self-confident. In a context characterized by low self-confidence of women, lack of opportunity to talk about violence, and absence of professional mental health counselling services, this initiative is sufficiently promising to warrant further testing.

Language: en