Arusha Mental Health Trust

 

AMHT has a small but talented, effective, and well trained staff at AMHT. The
psychiatric nursing staff are registered nurses with a special training and
upgraded education in psychiatry. There is a very experienced qualified Mental
Health Practitioner, a trained and qualified Counseling Psychotherapist and Cross-Professional Health Supervisor/Trainer as well as three well qualified and experienced Counselors, a Social Workers and Trainer. There is also a couple associated with AMHT who deal particularly with marriage and sexual concerns.

Also in our team we have a driver/messenger and office assistant who has several jobs like taking care of the reception.

 

A day in the life of…

We would like to give you insight in how a day in the life of our team members looks like. Read here more about how the life of our counselling Psychotherapist and a day in life of our social worker.

 

A Day in the life:
My name is Evanna Lyons and I am a Counselling Psychotherapist with AMHT and a Clinical Supervisor. What this last title means is that I am available for health professionals – counselors, therapists, social workers, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, nurses and those working with health, capacity building and communities outside, to come and reflect on their practice. I help individuals to try and review their professional practice, asking them to bring any cases which are pressing and then invite them to contemplate and reflect on their work and the process. We look at what might have been done differently, what they were pleased with, what will they bring back to the encounter and I try and offer them the tools and insights to bring back to their work which might ultimately benefit the client or those seeking help.

I am really enjoying my time here. I, like the other members of our staff, am often asked to give trainings. The work is so varied and the trainings I am asked to give can call for me to be creative, as I try to tailor the needs of organizations – be it to individual groups, NGO’s or to the religious. The types of trainings we offer in AMHT range from trainings on self-care to brief counselling skills, sexuality, an introduction to useful psychological theories, sexual abuse and violence, addictions, trauma, family of origin, personality types and many more.

We are in constant need of funding and donors, so I spend some of my time going through funding websites and have some experience in writing funding proposals. There are some exciting things we would like to get off the ground here which would really help the community – this relies on funding coming through so we live in hope!

So in a day, I will see a few clients as well as a few supervisees and work on preparing presentations for trainings in my spare time. I have recently had the pleasure to be invited along with a colleague to work with Farm Radio International on a pilot scheme training teachers and front line medical workers to recognize, diagnose, assess and treat adolescents for mental health problems namely Depression and Anxiety. Farm radio is developing weekly radio programs to raise awareness about teenage mental health so the numbers of those presenting with problems to clinics and in schools will most likely be higher.

If you’re reading this and work in any of the areas that fall into the above categories then Karibu! I would be happy to work with you.

 

A Day in the life of our Social Workers

In February 2012, we welcomed two social workers onto our team. We asked them to tell us what their work involves. The following is what one of them wrote for us.

‘Social workers spend their day helping people with complicated social problems, and at AMHT these problems are complicated further by mental illness. One of the things I have learnt quickly is that the trust of a mentally ill client is difficult to earn and easily lost. Consequently, the disappointment I feel when clients miss appointments or don’t keep to agreements will be a regular occurrence. I am thrilled to be part of such a dedicated team and look forward to the personal and professional challenges that lie ahead.’

As a social worker at AMHT I believe that if you love what you are doing every day will be your’ best day’. The fact is people need help and if you are a part of the human race you give it to them willingly and the great thing is that we even get paid to do it!

Please click here for an example of A day in the Life of a Social Worker with AMHT