The Health and Wellness Center promotes the physical and psychological health of the Agahozo-Shalom community through its Clinic and Counseling units. In the future, it will also be developing modules for training counselors and caregivers for the community outside Agahozo-Shalom.
Clinic
The Clinic provides basic healthcare and refers cases that need special treatment. The Clinic also implementshealth education on topics such as sanitation, diet, exercise, malaria prevention and HIV/AIDS.
The Clinic also works very closely with the Rubona community health center and the Rwamagana Hospital. In2009, strong partnerships were created with these two centers, ensuring that the Agahozo-Shalom community is able to get hospital care when needed.
The Clinic conducts a full physical assessment of all the kids shortly after theyarrive at ASYV. In general, the young people are healthy. Those who need to visit a specialist for dental issues, eyesight problem or skin problems are taken to an appropriate specialist. The Clinic also conducts HIV/AIDS testing after counseling has taken place.
Counseling Services
Through the following counseling activities, the Health and Wellness Center aims to enhance the psychological well-being of Agahozo-Shalom community members.
Through the following counseling activities, the Health and Wellness Center aims to enhance the psychological well-being of Agahozo-Shalom community members.
- Intake: Soon after arrival in the Village, individual interviews are conducted to assess the young people’s general psychological health.
- Individual counseling: Those who need intensive individual counseling meet with a social worker on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. Others may say a counselor ad hoc or on a monthly basis to identify any future mental health concern.
- Support to housemothers and counselors: Once a week, Health and Wellness Center staff meet with housemothers and counselors to discuss issues they may have and talk about topics which are relevant to their work or to their own lives. Visiting speakers also give workshops on trauma and related behaviors, and all Informal Education staff attend.
- Life skills education: During Enrichment Year, number of topics pertaining to personal, social, and academic needs are tackled once a week in the classroom setting at school.
- Ongoing advocacy: There is need for more sensitization about counseling as it is not very well understood in Rwanda. Our kids may suffer from Anxiety Disorders, including PTSD/Trauma, Panic disorder, Phobias, Chronic Anxiety, and depression, but because the most common coping skills within the population tends to be avoidance (for fear of "losing control"), and the counseling services are not always popular. Informal strategiesstrategies—mainly of the cognitive behavioral approach—can be the most effective in dealing with the kind of issues that emerge in our youngsters. Helping them cope with panic attacks in a practical way, changing mistaken beliefs, overcoming negative self-talk, practicing relaxation on a daily basisand other strategies make the Health and Wellness Center part and parcel of the daily life in the Village.
