GUYANA will join with the American Counselling Association (ACA) counsellors to observe April as ‘Awareness Month’ from today.

The ACA designated observance is sponsored annually to focus on the significant contributions counsellors make in helping people live healthy productive lives, said local member of the sponsoring organisation, Mrs. Joy Wilson.

Speaking ahead of the April 1 start, the social worker and counsellor pointed out that ACA spawns the globe and professional counsellors help clients identify goals and potential solutions to problems which cause emotional turmoil.

They also seek to improve communication and coping skills, strengthen self-esteem and foster behaviour change and optimal mental health, Wilson said.

She said, seeing her role as a facilitator, she is an advocate with a strong belief in the power of human potential and a passion for empowering people to lead rewarding lives.

Wilson noted that people tend to seek assistance when they have difficulty coping with stressful situations and those who counsel are tasked with assisting them through this period.

She said counsellors work at three levels, as non-professionals, generalist human services workers and professional helpers but the practice is a very important strategy for teaching assertiveness, anger management and building self-esteem.

Wilson lauded the efforts of the Schools Welfare Programme which is additional to what is being done by the Social Work Unit at Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), the prevention of mother-to-child counselling at public health clinics and the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security.

She said there appears to be much more openness on the part of the Government to counselling and she applauded it.

However, Wilson acknowledged that, even with such programmes, no country can provide for all the welfare needs of its people.

Here is where the work of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like Lifeline Counselling, Red Thread and Help and Shelter is invaluable, she remarked.

Wilson declared that development of a people through enhanced provision of human welfare services is critical to developing Guyana.

But, although recognising the reality of the global financial crisis that this country, too, has to grapple with, she maintained it is imperative that more resources be directed to develop human welfare.

Wilson exhorted other Guyanese to join in changing, from reactive to pro-active, the approach to human welfare issues, putting in place more aggressive preventative measures.

“Rather than be alarmed when we hear of another woman who is murdered by her lover or another child who is sexually molested by an adult, let us put measures in place to prevent these tragedies,” she appealed.

She said each counsellor must facilitate a process where persons set their own goals and make choices that aid their achievement.