Is it Not Now? : School Counselors’ Training in Tanzania Secondary Schools

Counseling is currently becoming a necessary service for  school learners in the developing world, this is due to fact that, the challenges facing learners in their learning process results into both internalizing and externalizing problems which affect student’s learning in terms of social, psychology and academic. This paper explores the status of school counselor’s training, knowledge and skills in Tanzania secondary schools. It attempt to assess school counselor’s perception towards the existing school counseling services and the degree of readiness to attend a counseling training in order to improve their counseling skills. The sample for the study included 62 school counselors from 16 secondary schools in Dar es salaam and the data were collected through questionnaires and interviews. The findings indicate that, there is less training among school counselors in the studied secondary schools. It was also noted that, though some school counselors attended some trainings, their knowledge, skills and awareness to school counseling principles is very limited. However, school counselors’ perception towards counseling services in schools is good and their degree of readiness to attend counseling training is positive (M=1.39, SD= 0.554). It was therefore concluded that school counseling services need to be enhanced through provision of school counseling trainings to teachers who are appointed to serve as school counselors in various secondary schools. With the support from these findings, it is recommended that, seminars and workshops for raising awareness as well as long term trainings are important in order to make school counseling services effective. Therefore, future research can also observe the extent to which the counseling component is taught in teacher colleges and universities so as to test the rationale for appointing teachers to work as school counselors even without any specified training on counseling. Key words: School counselor, Training, Perception, Knowledg

Prevalence of suicidality and associated factors of suicide risk in a representative community sample of families in three East African refugee camps

Scharpf F, Masath FB, Mkinga G, et al. Prevalence of suicidality and associated factors of suicide risk in a representative community sample of families in three East African refugee camps. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. 2023.**Purpose** To assess the prevalence of suicidality and associated factors of suicide risk in a sample of Burundian refugee families living in three refugee camps in Tanzania. **Methods** Children (n = 230) and their parents (n = 460) were randomly selected and interviewed about suicidality (suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts) and a range of sociodemographic, psychological, and environmental factors. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine factors associated with children and parents’ lower and moderate or high current suicide risk. **Results** Past-month prevalence of suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts were 11.3%, 0.9% and 0.9%, respectively, among children; 37.4%, 7.4% and 5.2%, respectively, among mothers; and 29.6%, 4.8% and 1.7%, respectively, among fathers. Older age in years (aORlower = 2.20, 95% CI 1.38–3.51; aORmoderate/high = 3.03, 95% CI 1.15–7.99) and higher levels of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms (aORlower = 1.64, 95% CI 1.05–2.57; aORmoderate/high = 2.30, 95% CI: 1.02–5.16), internalizing (aORmoderate/high = 2.88, 95% CI 1.33–6.26) and externalizing problems (aORlower = 1.56, 95% CI: 1.06–2.31; aORmoderate/high = 3.03, 95% CI 1.42–6.49) were significantly positively associated with children’s current suicide risk. For mothers, higher perceived instrumental social support (aORmoderate/high = 0.05, 95% CI lower = 1.97, 95% CI 1.30–2.99; aORmoderate/high = 1.59, 95% CI 1.00–2.52), living in larger households (aORlower = 1.74, 95% CI 1.17–2.57), and higher psychological distress (aORmoderate/high = 1.67, 95% CI 1.05–2.67) were significantly positively associated with suicide risk. For fathers, higher perceived instrumental social support (aORmoderate/high = 0.04, 95% CI moderate/high = 0.58, 95% CI 0.34–0.98) were significantly negatively and exposure to war-related trauma (aORmoderate/high = 1.81, 95% CI 1.03–3.19) was significantly positively associated with suicide risk. **Conclusion** Prevention programs should target psychopathology, community violence and social support to mitigate children and parents’ current suicide risk