AMSWON trains health workers on trauma, emergency management to reduce mental disorders

To reduce the number of Nigerians coming down with mental health problems such as depression on daily basis, the Association of Medical Social Workers of Nigeria (AMSWON), Lagos State Chapter, has trained health workers across Lagos on trauma and emergency management.

Speaking at the yearly socio-scientific conference 2022, held recently, in Yaba, Lagos, with theme: “Assessing and understanding trauma in clinical social work practice,” the Medical Director (MD), Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, Dr. Olugbenga Owoeye, said the training came at the right time when many Nigerians have both physical and psychological traumas as a result of the kidnappings, banditry and Fulani herdsmen attacks among others in the country.

Owoeye said the roles of social health workers in both intervention and recovering of these people with traumas are very important and having understanding of how assessment is been done among these people is very important because recovering from trauma actually starts from the assessment.

He said as soon as health workers start the assessment, the person begins to get well and start expressing his or herself; therefore having a good skills in this area will help the social health workers in capacity building towards achieving professional competence in their profession.

Owoeye said man-made trauma creates fear in the heart of many Nigerians. “Therefore, the training is very important because in mental health practice we have five member team, which include psychiatrists, psychiatrics nurses, clinical psychologists and social workers. The team works together to bring recovery in the life of anybody who has mental challenges,” he said.

Owoeye explained there is need for non-governmental organisations, religious institutions, individuals, philanthropists among others to join hands together to support social health workers to ensure that mental health challenges are reduced in the country.

Chairman, AMSWON, Lagos State chapter, Dr. Osaro Galvin Aikpitanyi, said AMSWON is an association of social workers working in the health sector and determined to train health workers in Lagos State.

He said the association is bordered about the increase in prices of medical healthcare services, which has made many indigent patients to be abandoned in the hospitals in Lagos and in Nigeria at large.

Aikpitanyi, from the National Orthopaedic Hospital Igbobi, Lagos, said the association is focusing more attention on ensuring that indigent people in the society would have access to medical treatment irrespective of their financial status.

He said the association do not take cash from donors rather they give donors hospital account numbers to pay in to ensure that the money is not mismanaged.

He, however, noted that it is the association that determines who is indigent patient because some people make false claim that they are indigent patients .