The Ministry of Women Community and Social Development has held a two-day training workshop on mental health and psychological support.

The training on Tuesday and Wednesday this week was held at the Tanoa Tusitala Hotel at Sogi focusing on mental health and psychological support as well as the application of psychological first aid.

M.W.C.S.D. Assistant Chief Executive Officer, Sauoaiga Autagavaia Kaio, highlighted the importance of the two-day training in an interview with the Samoa Observer on Thursday.

She said the training is important because of the nature of their work, not only by the Ministry but also the partners that the M.W.C.S.D. works with in terms of social services and tackling  social development issues.

According to Sauoaiga, the Ministry staff deal with a lot of issues like responding to victims of gender-based violence and child abuse as well as advocate for the rights of people with disabilities.

She said that they are of the opinion that the two-day training workshop will upskill their participating staff and is essential to their work in the social and community development sectors.

Looking at the different challenges that mental health can pose, Sauoaiga said having a lot of people experiencing different issues reflects the environment that they are in and can mentally have an impact on them personally. 

"This workshop is a two-day workshop, it's for mental health and psychosocial support as well as psychological first aid," she said.

The two-day training is an initiative of the M.W.C.S.D. and is supported by the Government of Australia through the Samoa Disability Partnership Programme, and is delivered by the U.N.I.C.E.F.

Workers in the Ministry as well as non-governmental organisations representatives attended the two-day workshop.