BY ANKELI EMMANUEL, Sokoto –
A mental health expert, Dr. Auwal Musa, has said the survivors of Gender Based Violence (GBV) especially those of sexual violation often have mental health challenges because of the impact of the experience.
“Because of the seriousness of the mental health in some cases, psychological first aid is needed in most cases to be able to stabilize such survivors” he said.
Dr. Musa, who made this submission at a 2 day workshop on Development of Paralegal Workforce, and Building On The Development of Auxiliary Social Workers organized by Legal Aid Council of Nigeria (LACON) with support from UNICEF and funded by European Union Access To Justice For Children On The Move and Other Vulnerable Children Programme in Sokoto, added that paralegals are those given professional trainings to save lives.
Speaking on the Role Of Paralegals In Mental Health Psychosocial Support (PSS) and Psychological First Aid (PFA), Dr. Musa urged participants to step down the training in their respective communities.
While appealing to participating paralegals to be reliable watchdogs in their respective communities, Dr Musa added that they are trained to enable vulnerable people have access to justice.
According to him, paralegals interventions could save lives and at times if badly done has the potential of setting a whole community on fire
To the trained paralegals Dr Musa said: “Even if you are not a medical expert, you can become a paramedics especially when a case of crime is involved. There are things you can do that can serve as reliable evidence”.
Quoting WHO, Dr. Musa said mental health is a state of well being in which an individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work work productively and is also able to make a contributions to his or her community”.
Continuing, Auwal said, cases of rape or sodomy are very devastating scenarios as they often comes with lots of complications that could have a permanent sting on survivors hence the need for psychosocial support.
“”And these psychosocial support refers to those actions taken to cater for the individuals, families and communities to enhance their ability to bounce back and restore normally after adverse experiences”.
The mental health expert, who appealed for robustly consistent parents/children relationship, urged parents to investigate whatever their children tells them as a way of building confidence in them.
Stressing that psychosocial support to GBV survivors can be preventive or curative, Dr Musa equally decried that the biggest communication mistake people do is that they don’t listen to understand but to reply, “which is genuinely not the best to resolving issues”.
Talking about the qualities expected of a paralegal official, he said they should have empathy, respect for the survivors, confidentiality, good communication skills, non judgmental, humble, soft and respect decisions of the survivors.
He however admonished paralegals to note that emotions and response differs which is why mental health and psychosocial support is very important.
“Response to trauma and stress, differs as some becomes anxious, constantly watchful, startled, poor concentration, have re-experience of event, feel guilty, sad, anger, emotional numbness, withdrawal, avoid places, people, have sleep disorder and nightmares.
Earlier, Sokoto State Coordinator of Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, Barrister Shettima Akilahyel, said the objective of the training is to enable participants know that everybody is a social worker in the demand for creating enabling environment for growth in accordance with UNICEF mission and vision.
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