HOPE Community Health Worker Debriefing
The 24 HOPE community health workers are confronted with a lot of hardship and suffering each day when counseling their patients at the clinics and doing home visits in their communities. In the long run, this can lead to feelings of stress, depression and compassion fatigue. To reduce any possibility of psychological harm in the health care workers, HOPE Cape Town has arranged for debriefing sessions with Tygerberg Hospital social worker Nocawe Frans. In several group meetings the community health workers were able to share their experiences and express their feelings. The debriefing sessions were very well received and will continue on a regular basis.