Lifeline brings hope for all

Ishara JAYAWARDANE

I magine yourself walking down a corridor with signposts that denote your age. You pass your teens and your young adulthood , you arrive at the prime of your life - the 30’s, and then before you know it………bang! You are at the age of 50. You look back at your life and realize with a pang of regret that you are not ready. Well folks the good news is that you are not alone in walking down that corridor. The bad news is that you have not prepared yourself to face aging or psychosocial issues. That is exactly where CHA comes into the picture. CHA basically wants to promote awareness about these issues. To prepare us.

The Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies (CHA) is an organization in the non profit sector in Sri Lanka working to secure dignity of life for all. Currently they are doing a programme titled Lifeline, where they deal with issues concerning the aging population, health for men over 50 and women over 40, issues which challenge persons mentally and physically, issues related to substance abuse, teen child related psychosocial issues such as phobias, anxiety, stress, obsessions and impact of separations, divorces, step parenting etc.

“It promotes wellness among people in general but very specifically it focuses on providing for early knowledge and also looks at giving written resource material for those interested as well as an opportunity to meet in group sessions. And finally if people wish to proceed to meet with more specialized doctors they can do so” said Executive Director of Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies, Jeevan Thiagarajah. What CHA is looking at is nothing new. It is about trying to get a focus going. The focus in on several areas; one is men’s health above 50 and women’s health above 40. They are looking at issues of aging and those who have aged. Also issues which challenge people physically and mentally are another one of Thiagarajah’s concerns. Finally there is the issue of substance abuse and the whole area of teen issues.

“When I look at men’s health above 50, there is a whole series of steps you are meant to take. For instance the first memory check one is meant to take is supposed to be at 50. Which nobody does. The extra aspect for women is that every single woman goes through menopause and it has its own sort of impact. If not understood early it could cause an enormous amount of anxiety. We are also conscious that Sri Lanka has an aging population which means that many a woman would suffer from the impact of menopause for a long time if it is not understood early. Similarly all of us will age. Preparing for aging, being ready for aging in terms of understanding what is happening to your body and helping those who have aged is another area” stated Thiagarajah.

It is really giving early knowledge, sometimes in terms of workforces.

The entire print media has pages devoted to health care. CHA is looking for partnerships. The electronic media are also giving time. Some of the professionals have their own bodies. For instance a group of doctors have been working on issues on menopause for over 12 years. Within the government services there are doctors who are working on healthcare.

“Many a doctor say with a great deal of sadness that urban educated are ignorant. I include myself among the ignorant. If the urban educated are ignorant, then one can imagine the state of affairs in rural areas. Quite recently, one of the heads of health care in one of the provinces has what is called “Nirogi Project” targeting 60,000 people. They have already screened 12,000. They are finding that people are in serious difficulty where health is concerned. So we are trying to address this. We have written to all the companies, saying; “would you like to promote greater health awareness amongst your workforce” pointed out Thiagarajah.

What triggered this programme was a comment from somebody who said that in the west, people are given the tools to deal with their disabilities and health issues.

“In Sri Lanka we tend to look at things in a very stereotyped way. If you have a problem you stay with the problem, you stay secluded or you are looked at as a problem. We also realized that this is an everyday issue and better knowledge means that you can deal with it” said Thiagarajah. Of course there are other organisations doing similar work, each in their own way. There are people who are looking at cancer. There are several organisations looking at psychosocial issues. A few are trying to deal with the aging population. There is a need for greater connectedness and greater promotion of knowledge.

“I would like to see cancer affected people sitting and working with fellow cancer affected persons, giving them the tools to deal with ; what you do when you have cancer. I would like to see those who are physically differently abled working with other differently abled people. I’d like to see parents who have children who have audio difficulties in terms of hearing, helping other parents understand how to cope” explained Thiagarajah.

CHA has a call centre which has an electronic resource centre as well. Right now it is day time but CHA wants to get it to a 24 hour point. CHA provides for email, providing for direct phone and physical contact to be arranged. CHA has a back office service which is a call centre and back office staff. Thiagarajah said that what they are doing is reference services. CHA would refer to other specialized groups. However they are not running a hospital of their own. What they do have is group sessions from 7am to 9pm . And they can also refer clients for legal aid.

Schizophrenia and personality disorder are part of the mentally challenged issues that CHA addresses. The stigma associated with such disorders is terrible. In fact CHA wants to contribute to the destigmatisation. A module has been developed by the National Institute on Health which is a long series module on how to understand these different afflictions – chemical imbalances. Now more than ever before young people are coming out with these problems, that is why there is a need for a greater understanding. Acute stress and consistent stress reduces a chemical in your head, which when it goes down takes your mood down. But it can also be taken up by natural food consumption such as fruits. 99% of the population may not even know about this. But people in high stress jobs should know this.

“The whole area of substance abuse is catastrophic. Both alcohol and different types of drugs. That is a large story within itself. If we can achieve a situation where we can give alternate avenues of employment for those in the drug trade it will be a start. We would like to see pharmacies and bars having even a poster or leaflet saying “where can you get help”. We would love to see that. Every single pharmacy and bar where you can buy medicine or liquor saying; “you can go for help to these places” elaborated Thiagarajah.

It is nothing new. There are enough resource persons in this country it is just connecting. Aging is a problem. By 70 you could be demented. So aging plus dementia plus other physical disabilities. Who is going to understand all of this? Why not understand this early?

The CHA is doing wonderful work for all those in need. Let us hope that lifeline will indeed prove to be the lifeline for the young and the old. All the best to CHA.