nursing-health-care-2019-keynote

2 / 4

Nursing and Healthcare 2019 Journal of Primary Care and General Practice | Volume 2
Page 20
OF EXCELLENCE
IN INTERNATIONAL
MEETINGS
YEARS
March 27-28, 2019 | Amsterdam, Netherlands
NURSING AND HEALTHCARE
Global Conference on
ADDRESSING MENTAL HEALTH
PROBLEMS OF READYMADE
GARMENTWORKERS
Bangladesh garment sector is predominated by women comprising 85%
of 4 million workforce. Mental distress affects their work life, productiv-
ity leading to a poor work-life. The normal day of women worker starts at
4am, cook’s food in the common kitchen available for 4-5 families, goes to
work at 7am, and has a longer work day till 7pm, then is back to take care of
her family and goes to bed between 10-11pm. She has no time of her own,
a victim of violence and abuse both in the factory and work, no one to
share her pain. Factory management do not realize the fact when psycho-
social challenges and issues go unaddressed, it impacts workers’effective-
ness in the work place. The pilot intervention by SNV with 600 workers ev-
idenced how introducing psychosocial counsellors at workplace affected
the situation in factories.Welfare officers, who are the first contact point for
workers in factory, were trained by certified psychologists and counsellors,
and these trained para-counsellors were institutionalized inside factory.
In words of the counsellor “within 2 months of introduction and program
awareness, 3 women came with anxiety and one of them had 4 sessions
with the counsellor for mental relief, 3 women reported work stress and
took 3 separate counselling sessions, others include conflict with supervi-
sor, family conflict, financial crisis, relationship issue and the resulted anx-
iety”. On success of this intervention, SNV is now moving towards Workers
Wellbeing Management Course for developing counsellors for the ready-
made garment sector to address worker psychological issues.
Farhtheeba Rahat Khan, J Prim Care Gen Pract 2019, Volume 2
Farhtheeba Rahat Khan is a development
professional with experience backed-up by
private sector interventions and develop-
ment sector working realities and challeng-
es. As the lead of ‘Private Sector Health proj-
ect’, Ms Khan undertook studies and worked
on the policy front with ministry of health its
directorates for formulation of policy frame-
work, guidelines and accreditation systems
in the health training, and emphasized on av-
enues for women employment in the health
sector. Currently, Ms Khan is the team leader
for the ‘Working with Women-2’ project im-
plemented by SNV where she is facilitating
interventions in garment factories, to ensure
health and well-being in a sustainable man-
ner.
Farhtheeba Rahat Khan
SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, Bangladesh
BIOGRAPHY