Lack of feedback a problem: Report

The National National

A STUDY has revealed that counselling services such as helplines contribute to health and social care but a lack of feedback to assess its effectiveness has become problematic.
The National Research Institute (NRI) discussion paper number 212, “Strategy to improve helpline services in Papua New Guinea: Gender aspects and family violence” by NRI associate professor Eugene Ezebilo, ChildFund PNG’s Henry Gorea and Kinime Daniel, and former programme manager at ChildFund PNG Thea Joy-Jarvis, provides insights into strategies relevant to helplines for strengthening interventions to key issues on family violence, gender-based violence (GBV) and violence against children (VAC).
According to the study, strategies that can be used to improve the effectiveness of a helpline include:

  • PROVIDE long-term support to survivors and/or supporting survivors to link in with face-to-face counselling services;
  • STRENGTHEN child helplines by using different methods such as online chatting and online video calls preferred by children so that they can receive the support they need, especially in the period of emergency;
  • TRAIN more counsellors on how to address issues associated with children so that affected children can have more confidence in using helplines;
  • ADDRESS the barriers that restrict some people from using helplines by conducting culturally appropriate awareness programmes, ensuring services are culturally relevant, for youth, hosting school-based education session and using online and off-line contact strategy; and
  • FOCUS on a single problem at a time, adopting to the pace of callers and creating a supportive environment that provides the caller with emotional safety.

The findings will provide more understanding to government and non-government organisations focused on providing GBV and VAC services in PNG on how to strengthen the effectiveness of services including helplines.
The findings also identify the need for more research to support evidence-based programming and service delivery in PNG.

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