Provide psycho-social care in insecurity-prone areas, medical social workers told

A professor of social work, James Ayangunna says that the regular occurrence of insecurity issues and their concomitant effects require that medical social workers focus more on providing psycho-social care in insecurity-prone areas in Nigeria.

Professor Ayangunna, Head of the Department of Social Work, University of Ibadan, in his keynote at the Association of Medical Social Workers of Nigeria (AMSWON) socio-scientific conference and training, said the social work profession is all about helping those who are unable to help themselves and medical social workers must focus on the psycho-social care if working in insecurity environment.

Professor Ayangunna, who spoke on the theme “The Impact of Insecurity among Affected Individuals in the Society: The Role of Medical Social Work Practice in Nigeria” declared that all Nigerians are either living with insecurity or affected by insecurity and have brought untold hardship to the populace.

Harping on human insecurity as a challenge to health, the don said its consequences are detrimental to the physical, psychological and overall well-being of the individual, including illness, low life expectancy rate, low quality of life and even death.

He declared that from studies government spends more money on fighting the insurgents and inadequate funds are allocated to health services in spite of obvious deteriorating health infrastructures.

Professor Ayangunna stated that the role of medical social workers in crisis management is to help provide immediate intervention, including outreach to populations who may not otherwise seek assistance, with the primary goal of reducing their symptoms and a return to an earlier state of equilibrium.

According to him, “interventions include a combination of counselling to handle emotional concerns, provision of practical information and concrete community resources and mobilisation of social and environmental support.”

Chief Medical Director, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Professor Jesse Otegbayo in his welcome address at the occasion lauded the medical social work and the profession provides alternative modes of treatment in instances that medications and surgeries do not work and help reduce the number of people in the community that are sick and requiring hospital care.

Earlier, AMSWON’s National President, Mr Kayode Ogendegbe said the conference was to kindle medical social workers’ support for victims of insecurity and their families with long-term health and psychological issues and forced involvement in militias and terrorist organisations.

He declared that the conference would afford the professionals the opportunity to also develop novel approaches to supporting victims of insecurity and their families in Nigeria as well as address all forms of harmful power asymmetries between the helper and the helped in the country.