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By: Hamza Suleiman

The International Community of Red Cross(ICRC) has provided 10,000 mental health and psychosocial support services to 10,000 traumatized victims in Borno in eight years.

Ms Comfort Dauda, The ICRC Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Field Officer, made this known in Maiduguri.

She  said that ICRC has been providing mental and psychosocial support for people affected by violence of armed conflict in the state, noting that they are in one of the communities to celebrate World Mental Health Day with some of their service users.

She explained that ICRC has also provided basic psychosocial support, psychological first aid, psycho-education, awareness-raising, community-based activities, counseling, group therapy,  psychiatric  psychological assessments and treatments to the beneficiaries.

”The beneficiaries were drawn from Maiduguri Metropolitan Council, Damboa Dikwa and Monguno and Bama.

”They were provided with  10 weeks of psycho-social support services,” she said.

The official noted that those who accessed the services included IDPs, missing persons,  hospital patients suffering weapon wounds; frontline healthcare workers; and people in detention were treated in various health facilities.

“We are supporting such patients in Umaru Shehu Hospital, State Psychiatric Hospital  and State  Specialist Hospital and University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospitals in the state to provide such services to the victims.

“We also  collaborated with the State  Psychiatric Hospital to train some social workers and nurses to support people affected by violence on mental health and psychosocial support services.

”We are also collaborating with the State Ministry of Health and Women Affairs to provide psychological support services to women, girls who were sexually violent  victims.

“We are currently working in three communities in the MMC  including Ngaranam Bayan Quarters and Libya Bayan Texaco where over 340 people with the  same symptoms go to the centers to sit down and interact for ten weeks with our mental health and psychosocial support professionals,”she said.

Speaking, Malama Batul Bulama, an IDP, said she recovered from trauma after accessing mental health and psychosocial services provided by the organisation.

Bulama said that before she was treated in one of the centres, she was depressed and had serious health complications after she and her family were displaced in their community by Boko Haram insurgents. (NAN)

Edited by Sadiya Hamza

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Published By

Philip Daniel Yatai

Editor/Assistant Chief Correspondent,
FCT Correspondent,
NAN Abuja.

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