Reverend Father Alphonse Amanor, a Clinical Psychologist, has urged caregivers to be sensitive to the plight of their patients and clients by giving them the maximum attention.
That, he said, would promote peace within the health facility and also raised the self-esteem of the patients, which would help contribute to the healing process.
The clinical psychologist expressed worry about the attitude of some medical doctors, nurses and other health workers, especially making phone calls when patients were before them.
He said those attitudes that had become common gave the impression that the patient was “a nobody” and that the caregiver was not sensitive to the plight of the patient.
Reverend Amanor, who was speaking at a graduation ceremony of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) in Koforidua on Friday, said every hospital therefore needed the services of chaplains who had been trained in CPE to handle that aspect.
He said with globalization, health administration goes beyond just a caregiver handling the patients anyhow because the patient was vulnerable at that time to a level that he needed some level of respect from the doctors and nurses.
The CPE was introduced to the country by Reverend Monsignor Bobby Benson, the Director of Matthew 25 House, an HIV and AIDS Care Centre, to train people in chaplaincy with emphasis on clinical and pastoral care at the hospitals.
According to Monsignor Benson, the CPE was a method of training ordained religious or lay persons to offer pastoral care in crisis situations through counseling, use of religious resources and knowledge in clinical care to the vulnerable in society.
He said as part of the programme, trainees were given ample training on Genogram, Will Writing, End of Life Care, Counseling and Caring for People Living with HIV and AIDS, to make them relevant to the needs of the vulnerable.
He expressed the hope that CPE would be accepted as a method of training chaplains in Ghana for the health sector and all other institutions where chaplaincy services were offered.**
Source: GhanaWeb
