|
|
Botswana: Family Counselling a Must
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
COLUMN
21 April 2008
Posted to the web 21 April 2008
Dan Mosekaphofu
Francistown
"We don't know how to handle or deal with this girl. She is now displaying disturbing patterns of behaviour. one day she is jovial and easy to interact with but the next day she is a completely different individual.
Her behaviour is very unpredictable and is making life difficult for all of us in the family," the old man declares as he throws his hands resignedly into the air.
This is the Bizo family (not their real name). They are one of the many families in Botswana looking after an HIV-positive member. But like many other families, they have not received any form of counselling on how to handle their loved ones.
As a result of the problems affecting families like the Bizo's, many people are now questioning the effectiveness of the approach that is widely used in the current counselling services.
For the 32-year-old Mmapula Motlhoka of Nswazwi, "it is very important for us as a society to re-evaluate the shape, the extent and level of our counselling programmes to ensure that they are more responsive and relevant to our situation."
Motlhoka maintains that the current form of HIV/ AIDS counselling seems to be targeting the concerned individual who has gone for testing as they are the only ones who go through the pre and post-counselling sessions. "This is however an oversight as this individual will go back to live and operate within their families after this counselling and testing process."
She feels that there is need to ensure that even family members and guardians are counselled "to ensure they are equipped with the skills of handling any form of complications that may arise in dealing with their loved ones".
Twenty-three year-old Gaolathe Mpenda of Borolong supports Motloka's argument. He maintains that it is imperative for the counselling services to be inclusive, taking cognisance of the fact that the concerned individual does not operate in a vacuum. "We need as much as possible to strengthen the support system, which in most cases revolves around the family."
Mpenda argues that the counselling that is extended to the family members will undoubtedly help in the fight against stigma and discrimination. "It is imperative to make the family a good place for both the infected and the affected through total elimination of any form of discrimination within the family set up," he says.
He, however, acknowledges the fact that such an approach or endeavour is and will always be complex and challenging. "Such an approach will call for more counsellors. It will also require more comprehensive follow-up programmes to be formulated. Such follow-up programmes should not only be for those who have tested positive but everyone who has tested."
Bobonong's 22-year-old Mompoloki Sehamo is also for a counselling programme that is inclusive of family members. "Though it is important to acknowledge that testing is an individual choice, it must also be appreciated that the individual needs the family as one of the apparatus that defines an effective support system. The family should also be counselled," he reasoned.
Sehamo also believes that such an approach will help in the fight against stigma and discrimination.
"Such an approach will not only help to mitigate against the stigma and discrimination but will also encourage people to test with the assurance that they will get the necessary support whatever the outcome," he argues.
For him signs of family disintegration that are associated with stigma and discrimination of the infected is a direct consequence of the lack of counselling. "It is true that in some cases, families are torn apart by the news that one of them has tested positive. Such revelations come as a shock that shakes the whole family foundation and threatens the peace and tranquilly prevailing in those families.
We therefore have to provide the family members with the shock absorbers through counselling," he reasoned.
Evelyn Mwape of the Francistown Christian Response Network, one of the BOCAIP Centres in Botswana, said counselling is an integral part of the fight against stigma and discrimination.
She revealed that it must be borne in mind the fact that family counselling will always come into the picture after the concerned individual or the infected is ready to disclose his/her status to family members. "The infected person's right to privacy has to be respected. It is only after the individual has voluntarily disclosed to family members that family counselling becomes easier," she said. Mwape also maintains that it is important for the disclosure of one' status to be a gradual process. "This should be done in phases or stages. The concerned individuals should ensure that they psychologically prepare their families for the news they are about to break to them over a considerable period of time," she advised.
She says that one of the stages in the build-up to the disclosure of one's status may include such tactics as giving hints through questions that may be thrown at the family members such as, 'What can we do if one of us tests positive?'
|
Mwape believes that, such hints would help one way or the other in preparing a common ground between the infected and those that they want to communicate their status to. This would ensure that "the news does not come as a shock".
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Mmegi/The Reporter. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
