Psychosocial interventions are services designed to provide counselling, assistance to accessing other services, access to skilled and professional help, assistance with the development of strategies to reduce harm, and access to specialist advice and information. These services can be provided to individuals or to groups.
Psychological intervention could also be in a form of helping a person to cope with the stressors of a life event. These could be a health challenge such as COVID-19, work related, home based, relationship issues, developmental issues and many more. Psychosocial interventions takes many forms and fall under two main umbrellas of therapy, namely cognitive and behavioural therapy.
Psychological interventions attempts to establish certainty in an uncertain situation and so the human brain play a great role whether we are a contact, quarantined or isolated. When our certainty is questioned for example, our stress response goes haywire, instantly arousing our fight-or-flight reaction, prompting you to take action in order to get you to safety.
Waiting for certainty as in laboratory confirmation or otherwise of COVID-19 as a contact, in quarantine or isolation in relationship to COVID-19 can feel like torture by a million tiny cuts as our brain prefers to know an outcome one way or another to take the urge off.
The fight against the COVID-19 pandemic would be won side by side with our health care providers, government, religious bodies, traditional rulers and the INDIVIDUAL including you and I as we prepare and are able to support the needs of contacts, quarantined and isolated individuals who transition home to continue their therapy.
For everyone involved in this COVID-19 pandemic fight, we need to take note of the following to help our colleagues or employees who have been exposed, quarantined and isolated, adjust appropriately to their personal care, functioning in the family, work and society. This will help minimise stigma situation and its psychological related challenges.
In preparing to admit or discharge a person as contact, quarantined or isolated in relation to COVID-19, there is need for the involvement of professionals like Psychologists and Counsellors to prepare them for their reintegration back into society. Families and co-workers must be involved in this support to deal with any concerns, perceptions or fears as a way of improving their health and enhancing their reintegration process and productivity.
From the psychosocial perspective, I would like to suggest the following as a way of helping to appropriately deal with COVID-19 related challenges or stressors as regards contact, quarantined or isolated individuals. This would go a long way to help in the containment of the pandemic:
- Appropriate involvement of affected persons in the treatment or management process and instituting individualised care.
- Prepare a contact, quarantined or isolated person appropriately before break news of their positive test to them.
- Prepare appropriately for a family reunion after contact, quarantine and isolation.
- Appropriate preparation to enable contact, quarantined and isolated persons resume work
- Appropriate management of stigma related to COVID-19 pandemic.
- Helping affected persons to manage worries related to COVID-19 pandemic.
- Institution of an effective communication system to handle individuals in contact, quarantine and isolation situations.
- Training in psychological first aid and use of psychological interventions.
- Emotional management training for all affected individuals, their families or co-workers, etc.
- Institutions of appropriate social support systems for affected individuals by their employers/communities.
Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic is no respecter of persons and a collaborated effort by all in society and the strict observance of the WHO guidelines and precautionary measures such as wearing of face masks, practicing hygiene and social distancing protocols, etc. are the surest way to go as the world await a vaccine as a definite treatment and cure for covid-19.
The writer as a Psychologist and Executive Director of Total Life Enhancement Centre Ghana, a Tamale-based Non-Governmental Organisation that is into mental health advocacy, linking individuals to service providers (Psychologists) and support services in the area of psychological intervention.
BY: BRO. PETER MINTIR AMADU, MAREDES OFFICER, COUNCIL 27, TAMALE