The State Tuberculosis Office, under the umbrella of the National Health Mission, Meghalaya, held a two-day capacity building programme for frontline staff on counselling soft skills on June 13-14 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 person affected by tuberculosis and their family members to be counselled at every opportunity, to address information gaps and to enable informed decision-making.
The objective was to train the front line staff, which includes senior treatment supervisors and TB health visitors about social determinants of TB, introduction, principle and skills of counselling. Through this training, the staff learnt to utilise the skills of counselling and the way of approach while treating the 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 staff while working with the TB community is to have a non-judgemental approach and be empathetic towards TB patients.
To address the gap, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has begun a national helpline (1800-11-6666) where anyone can call the number and get free TB counselling and treatment support 24 hours a day.
