Challenging and Changing Lives: The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Peer Counseling Program, a Model for Tertiary Institutions

This paper is about the KNUST Peer Counsellors Program (KPC); an initiative of the KNUST Counselling Center (KCC). Over the years, the number of Peer Counsellors has increased. Students at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have likewise increased. The aim of the paper was basically to examine the impact of the peer counselling experience on the students who volunteer to be trained and serve as Peer Counsellors. To the best of our knowledge, no study as yet has examined impact of peer counselling among university students in Ghana. Yet, we believe it is a program worth further exploration and development to equip the youth with altruistic values. Reports from the Peer Counsellors affirm the positive impact of the experience on their lives as young people. It projects a viable developmental pathway, career wise, for some of them aside the promotion of own and others wellbeing. Administrative and functional structure of the KPC is described in the paper and recommended as a program for other tertiary institutions to augment formation and education of students. Citation:Owusu-Ansah, F. E., Peasah, O. S. B., De-Graft Adjei, V., Jantuah, S. and Hackman, J. (2021). Challenging and Changing Lives: The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Peer Counseling Program, a Model for Tertiary Institutions. International Journal of Technology and Management Research (IJTMR), Vol. 6 (2): Pp.73-80. Received: January 3, 2021Accepted: September 1, 2021

Effect of peer counselling on acceptance of modern contraceptives among female refugee adolescents in northern Uganda: A randomised controlled trial

Background The unmet need for contraceptives among refugee adolescents is high globally, leaving girls vulnerable to unintended pregnancies. Lack of knowledge and fear of side effects are the most reported reasons for non-use of contraceptives amongst refugee adolescents. Peer counselling, the use of trained adolescents to offer contraceptive counselling to fellow peers, has showed effectiveness in increasing use of contraceptives in non-refugee adolescent resarch. Objective To determine the effect of peer counselling on acceptance of modern contraceptives among female refugee adolescents in northern Uganda. Methods A randomised controlled trial carried out in Palabek refugee settlement in northern Uganda, May to July 2019. Adolescents were included if they were sexually active or in any form of union, wanted to delay child bearing, and were not using any contraceptives. A total of 588 consenting adolescents were randomised to either peer counselling or routine counselling, the standard of care. Results Adolescents who received peer counselling were more likely to accept a contraceptive method compared to those who received routine counselling (PR: 1·24, 95% CI: 1·03 to 1·50, p = 0·023). Adolescents whose partners had attained up to tertiary education were more likely to accept a method than those whose partners had secondary or less education (PR: 1·45, 95% CI: 1·02 to 2·06, p = 0·037). In both groups, the most frequently accepted methods were the injectable and implant, with the commonest reasons for non-acceptance of contraception being fear of side effects and partner prohibition. Conclusion Our data indicates that peer counselling has a positive effect on same day acceptance of modern contraceptives and should therefore be considered in future efforts to prevent adolescent pregnancies in refugee settings. Future peer counselling interventions should focus on how to effectively address adolescents’ fear of side effects and partner prohibition, as these factors continue to impede decision making for contraceptive uptake.

ShishuPushti Trial: a cluster randomized controlled trial to evaluate extended peer counselling for improving feeding practices and reducing undernutrition in children aged 0-48 months in urban Bangladesh. (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Lack of exclusive breastfeeding and inappropriate complementary feeding are critical factors in reducing child undernutrition, morbidity and mortality. There are reported trials of peer counselling to improve breastfeeding; however, they did not examine the efficacy of peer counselling to improve complementary feeding or the long-term impacts on child growth and development. OBJECTIVE To assess if peer counselling of women improves breastfeeding and complementary feeding practices, child growth and reduces the prevalence of undernutrition in their children up to four years of age. METHODS This study will use a community-based, cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT) with a superiority design and two parallel treatment arms. It will assess the impact of a peer-counselling starting in the late pregnancy to one year after delivery on child feeding practices, growth and development with follow-up until 48 months of age. The study site will be in Mirpur, a densely populated area in Dhaka. Using satellite maps and GIS mapping, we will construct 36 clusters with an average population of 5,000 people. We will recruit pregnant women in the third trimester aged 16-40 years, with no more than three living children. Trained peer counsellors will visit women at home twice before delivery, four times in the first month; then monthly from 2 to 6 months, and again at 9 and 12 months. Trained research assistants will collect anthropometric measurements. The primary outcome will be differences in child stunting and mean length-for-age at 6, 12, 15, 18 months. Secondary outcomes will be differences in the percentage of women exclusively breastfeeding, in the mean duration of any breastfeeding, in the percentage of children at 6 and 9 months of age who receive solid, semi-solid or soft foods and the percentage of children consuming foods from 4 or more food groups at 9, 12, 15 and 18 months. We will assess the mean cognitive function scores from the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (9 and 18 months) and Bayley tests (24 and 36 months). RESULTS We identified 65,535 people in mapped residences, from which we defined 36 clusters and randomly allocated them equally to intervention or control groups stratified by cluster socio-economic status. From July 2011 to May 2013, we identified 1056 pregnant women and 993 births in the intervention and 994 pregnancies and 890 births in the control group. At 18 months, 692 children remained in the intervention, and 551 in the control group. From January 2015 to February 2017, we conducted the long term follow-up of the cohort. We have now completed the data collection and processing and have started analyses. CONCLUSIONS This study will help fill the evidence gap about the short- and long-term impact of peer counselling on improving infant feeding, preventing childhood undernutrition, and enhancing child cognitive development. CLINICALTRIAL NCT01333995

Vulnerable Learners’ Experiences on Drug Abuse in Zimbabwean Rural Schools: A Literature Review Perspective

: In Zimbabwean rural schools, drug abuse is observed to be on the increase trend. It is in this context that this paper delved into experiences that are encountered by vulnerable learners abusing drug in rural schools. Accordingly, it targeted at how this social phobic has become entrenched in learners’ way of being and the plausible antidotes to this drawback. In this regard, a framework derived from social constructionist and symbolic interactionist standpoints provided the lens through which the researchers perceived the issue under investigation. The researchers used literature review in the generation and analysis of learners’ lived experiences with regards to the issue under study from different sources. The researchers used the narration of information from commissioned reports, newspaper articles and empirical findings. From consulted sources, the researchers noted that there is widespread drug abuse in most rural schools through the influence of the institution linked dynamics, age issues, life stress, peer group pressure, obtainability of ready money and ease of access to drugs. With respect to these findings, the researchers concluded that drug abuse by learners in rural schools in Zimbabwe was from literature perspective mostly due to multi-pronged influences. Hence the researchers recommended that key interested parties such as Government, Non- Governmental Organizations, parents, teachers and policymakers should consistently implement and monitor strategies such as peer counselling to mitigate the drug abuse among rural learners.

Psychosocial Interventions for Women with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 Mutation: A Scoping Review

This scoping review aimed to explore the effectiveness of psychological and psychoeducational interventions for BRCA mutation carriers. Four electronic bibliographic databases were searched. After review, 23 articles that described or assessed forms of an additional psychosocial intervention for individuals with a BRCA mutation were identified and included. Intervention types discussed in the articles were telephone-based peer-to-peer counselling (5), online communities (4), in-person group counselling (8), and one-day sessions (6). Outcomes investigated within the articles included psychosocial outcomes (18), satisfaction (8), health behaviours (7), and knowledge (5). The included studies suggested that telephone-based peer-to-peer counselling and online communities improve patient knowledge and psychosocial functioning and can overcome challenges such as scheduling and travel associated with in-person support groups, but may have challenges with recruitment and retainment of participants. Group in-person education sessions satisfied the need amongst BRCA1/2 carriers in terms of accessing necessary information regarding cancer risk assessment and management; however, the impact of group education sessions on psychological outcomes was variable across the included studies. Overall, all the forms of intervention described in this scoping review were well-received by participants; some have been shown to reduce distress, depression, and anxiety.

Enhancing Guidance and Counselling Services for Mitigating Psychosocial Distress among University Students in Tanzania

This study investigated the strategies for enhancing guidance and counselling services in an effort to mitigate psychosocial distress in Tanzanian Universities. The study adopted a qualitative approach. Multistage and purposive sampling techniques were used to select the study participants. Two universities, two counsellors and two Deans of Students were purposively selected while eighteen students, nine from each university were sampled on the willingness basis for group discussion across the faculties. Data was collected using focus group discussion and interview schedule. For content validity, the inter-raters established the viability of the instruments in view of the research question. Reliability was ensured through multiple data collection instruments. Data was analyzed thematically. The study established that peer counselling programs were not formalized in universities in Tanzania. It can also be concluded that students were not informed about the availability and benefits of guidance and counselling services available in universities and the guidance and counselling departments were underfunded by the universities. Moreover, the counsellors were not professionally trained in counselling. The study recommended that Universities should employ professional counsellors, adequately fund the guidance and counselling services for efficient services. Besides, orientation programs should include informing new students about available guidance and counselling services on campuses.

Interventions to promote exclusive breastfeeding among young mothers: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Exclusive breastfeeding rates in many high-income countries are considerably lower than the World Health Organization recommendations. Younger mothers are less likely than older mothers to exclusively breastfeed or to exclusively breastfeed for a long duration. This systematic review explores interventions to increase the rate of exclusive breastfeeding among young mothers in high-income countries. Methods A systematic search of the following databases was completed in August 2020: CINAHL, PubMed, MEDLINE, ProQuest, PsychInfo, Web of Science, Cochrane, Scopus and Embase. A manual search of the reference lists of all the included studies and published systematic reviews was also performed. The Cochrane Collaboration Risk of Bias Tool was used to assess the quality of the included studies. A random effects model meta-analyses was applied. Heterogeneity of outcomes between the studies was assessed using both the χ2 test and the I2 statistic. Results Of 955 records identified in the search, 392 duplicates were removed, and nine studies met the inclusion criteria. Seven studies were randomised controlled trial (RCTs) and two were quasi-experimental in design. Eight were conducted in the United States. The interventions included peer counselling, telephone support, massage, gift packs, financial incentive and antenatal education. Most studies included a combination of strategies, peer counselling being the most common. A meta-analysis of four of nine included studies did not detect a difference in rate of exclusive breastfeeding to 3 months postpartum (RR 1.44; 95% CI 0.82, 2.55; p = 0.204). This review is limited by the relatively few studies which met the inclusion criteria and the small sample sizes of most included studies. High rates of attrition and formula supplementation among the participants made it difficult to detect a statistically significant effect. Consistency in follow up times would enable more studies to be included in a meta-analysis. Conclusions Peer counselling was the most promising strategy associated with higher rates of exclusive breastfeeding. However, further studies are needed to understand the breastfeeding experiences of young mothers. Young mothers should be targeted specifically in intervention studies.

Effect of peer counselling on exclusive breastfeeding among mothers attending child welfare clinic in two selected general hospitals in Lagos state, Nigeria

Background: Inadequate nutrition and poor feeding practices of newborn and infants has turn out to be a major public health concern that has negatively affected the lives of many children and as led to the cause of various forms of deficiencies, also the leading cause of death of most children between 1-5years of age. This study determined the effect of peer counselling on exclusive breastfeeding among mothers attending child welfare clinic in two selected general hospitals in Lagos State, Nigeria.Methods: This study adopted a two group pre-test post-test quasi experimental design. Total enumeration was used to select one hundred and seventy-four (174) participants that participated in the study. Data was collected using a self-developed questionnaire while four research questions were tested using descriptive statistics.Results: Findings indicated that the pre-intervention knowledge mean score of participants on the knowledge of exclusive breastfeeding in the control group was 15.43±4.98 (48.2%) and 14.69±5.16 (45.9%) in the experimental group with a mean difference of 0.74. The post-intervention knowledge mean score of participants on the exclusive breastfeeding in the control group was 15.58±4.83 (48.7%) and 28.97±8.31 (90.5%) in the experimental group with a mean difference of 13.39. Conclusions: The present study demonstrated a significant improvement in the exclusive breastfeeding rate among mothers due to peer counselling exposure, and the interventions have been effective in increasing knowledge and practice of breastfeeding among mothers. It was recommended that knowledge of peer counselling will influence knowledge, practice and behaviours on exclusive breastfeeding rate among mothers.