Meghalaya’s TB staff trained on counselling soft skills to support TB community

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJune 15, 2023

The State TB Office under the umbrella of National Health Mission, Meghalaya holds a 2 days Capacity Building of Front-Line Staff on Counselling Soft Skills on June 13 and 14 at The Habitat Shillong. The program was organised in collaboration with Saksham Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai and supported by XIM University, Bhubaneswar and Saksham Pravaah.

Dr. M. Mawrie, State TB Officer, inaugurated the programme. Addressing the health staff, he reminded about the State and Country goals towards TB Elimination by 2025. He informed them that it is important for every persons affected by tuberculosis and their family members should be counselled at every opportunity, to address information gaps and to enable informed decision-making.

The Training objective is to train the front line staff, which includes Senior Treatment Supervisor and TB Health Visitor about social determinants of TB, introduction, principle and skills of Counselling. Through this training, the staffs are learning to utilise the skills of counselling and the way of approach while treating TB community.

The training designed and implemented by TISS was entirely participatory focusing on practicing counselling skills and experiential in nature.

The important message for all the health staffs while working with TB community is to have non- judgemental approach and be empathetic towards TB patients.

To address the gap, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India came with a national helpline number 1800-11-6666 where anyone can call the number and get free TB counselling and treatment support for 24*7.