title: Paramedic-conducted mental health counselling for abused women in rural Bangladesh: an evaluation from the perspective of participants.
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.
authors.affiliation: Public Health Sciences Division, ICDDR,B, GPO Box 128, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh. ruchira@icddrb.org
authors.forename: Ruchira T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Naved
authors.forename: Nadia A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Rimi
authors.forename: Shamshad
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jahan
authors.forename: Gunilla
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lindmark
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000488:Allied Health Personnel / Q000193:education; D001459:Bangladesh; D018585:Battered Women / Q000523:psychology*; D003376:Counseling; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D016015:Logistic Models; D008605:Mental Health Services; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012424:Rural Population; D016387:Women's Health; D055815:Young Adult