Formation and Training of Peer Counselors on PKPR and Post-Covid-19 AKB Socialization

Limited knowledge of students about adolescent reproductive health is a problem that is often found in Islamic boarding school. The behavior of teenagers who often wear clothes or towels alternating with friends will be very influential for the reproductive health of adolescents, and it is feared that it could become a medium of spread of covid-19. Therefore, it is necessary to establish youth counselors and training through the provision of information as well as counseling practices on Youth Care Health Services (PKPR) and Socialization of New Habit Adaptation (AKB) after covid-19 in Al-Ittihaad Islamic Boarding School Purbaratu. The purpose of this PKM activity is to train and provide information on the importance of maintaining health by paying attention to adolescent reproductive health behaviors in Islamic boarding school with the implementation of health protocols / adaptation of new habits (AKB), which in the end participants are able to relay the information that has been obtained during the training process to others. The method in this activity is the establishment of youth counselors from santri sons and daughters. Providing training by directly training participants conduct counseling practices to their peers in the post-covid-19 PKPR and AKB. Conduct health protocols to prevent the spread of covid-19 virus in Islamic boarding school. The result of this activity is the increasing knowledge and skills of peer counsellors about PKPR and AKB post-covid-19 in Islamic boarding school.Conclusion is that participants can know and better understand and apply directly the material about PKPR and AKB post-covid-19 in Islamic boarding school.

Nature and extent of counseling practice in community pharmacies in Sulaimani city, Iraq: A cross-sectional study

Background and objective: Community pharmacists play an important role in the best use of drugs and in improving patient outcomes. Evidence demonstrates that pharmacists' counseling improves the quality of life, clinical outcomes, and drug and disease knowledge and reduces the utilization of health services. This study aimed to investigate the nature and extent of counseling practices of community pharmacists in community pharmacies in Sulaimani region of Kurdistan, Iraq. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in community pharmacies in Sulaimani city, in a one-month duration from November to December 2020. The sample size was 100 community pharmacies, which were selected randomly. The data were stored and analyzed using Excel 2016 and expressed as frequencies and percentages. Results: According to the completed questionnaires, about 78.8% of pharmacists would do counseling spontaneously each time they dispense any drug. Only 61% of the pharmacists would ask the patients if they understood what was said during their communication to assess the understanding of advice given to their patients. The most common barrier observed during patient counseling was the patient's lack of time. Conclusion: This study indicates that community pharmacists counsel the patients in an appropriate way. They provide information orally and in written form. However, further research is needed to evaluate the quality of patient counseling by using different methods like pseudo-patient methodology to gain real counseling data. Keywords: Counselling; Community pharmacist; Community pharmacy; Counselling barriers.

A Local Approach Toward Multicultural Counseling in Malaysia

Malaysia is a multicultural and multi-religious country. The importance of multicultural counseling has been widely recognized and discussed. Counselors need to be multiculturally-knowledgeable when dealing with multicultural clients. The effectiveness of counseling may likely be improved by integrating Malaysian approaches that are tailored to this country’s traditions and insights, into the current conventional counseling practices. Most of these counseling and psychotherapy theories are based on, and biased towards, the Euro-American culture. Novice counselors in particular frequently reported a lack of skills in dealing with culturally-diverse clients. Multicultural counseling competency is an evolutionary progress that is meant to achieve an effective treatment, and greater inclusion of minorities in mainstream society. Therefore, this paper highlights multicultural counseling competencies and the evolution of counseling in Malaysia. Using narrative method literature review, this paper presents local approaches toward counseling in Malaysia, based on various religions, which are specifically focused on an Islamic approach. This paper then compares and contrasts the local approaches with those of the conventional Western based counseling methods. Some recommendations that merit further investigation are highlighted for future studies.

Postfeminist Versions of Equality? An Analysis of Relationship and Sex Counseling Practices in Finland

Relationship and sex counseling are pivotal components of the “therapeutization of society,” which has been identified and widely examined as a key transformation of 21st-century modern Western societies. The particular understandings of gender and sexuality that circulate in those practices contribute to the wider everyday conceptions of intimate life and are thus important to investigate from a feminist perspective. Combining insights from studies on therapeutic cultures, research on intimate relationships, scholarship on postfeminism, and affect theory, this article taps into the often ambivalent ways in which gender equality and sexual rights are articulated in relationship and sex counseling practices. My data are derived from an ethnographic investigation of relationship enhancement events in Finland. Equality was widely supported at these events, but there was no consensus regarding what desirable equality actually looked like. My analysis identifies several contradictory patterns in the data. First, there are statements to the effect that equality has “gone too far.” Second, many experts express tokenized critiques yet remain invested in depoliticizing views. Third, there are acts of resistance that embrace diversity and expand everyday understandings of gender and sexuality. I argue that these patterns constitute a postfeminist sensibility, thus complicating the belief that Nordic countries are exceptionally supportive of equality.

The Training of Health Cadre as an Effort to Prevent the Transmission of HIV/AIDS to Pregnant Women

The degree of public health in a country can be reflected in the number of health cases resulting in maternal and infant mortality. The mortality rates can further increase with the cases of HIV transmission from mother to child. Therefore, to mitigate this issue, there should be a program that can provide basic health services. One such program was once conducted in the Center for Public Health through VCT services. However, this program did not manage to lower the case counts as expected. The presence of midwives in the health facilities is observed to be inadequate in attracting pregnant women to undergo ANC services. Furthermore, there are still cases of delay in the pregnant women’s first visit to the health service, rendering it too late to identify pregnant women with HIV. The Mitra Village Development Program (PPDM) in Dolok Hataran Village, Siantar District, Simalungun Regency, was then conducted and enhanced the health cadres’ knowledge about the measures taken to prevent HIV/AIDS transmission from pregnant women to their babies, also able to provide counseling practices. The method of activity is training of 24 health cadres of Batu Anam Health Center, Simalungun Regency, and counseling practices with pregnant women. This activity succeeded in increasing the knowledge of cadres and cadres able to conduct counseling practices.

Spiritual and Philosophical Practices: Together for Community Using the Counseling

The paper presents characteristics of practices in the humanities that can be manifested through specific forms of counseling, namely spiritual or pastoral counseling and philosophical counseling. Through the comparative analysis of the two practices, interdisciplinary links are identified, reflected at the conceptual and applied level, with both their similarities and differences being highlighted, in order to emphasize the originality and the capacity to adapt to the requirements of the field from which they come. The paper supports the new trend of involvement in communities of specific counseling practices by expanding their application potential from person to group and community, with the help of an adaptation process necessary to achieve the goal in order to bring the practice of counseling to as many persons and to community or society in general.