Tuberculosis Psychosocial Support Guide Book Launched
Press Release
Psychosocial counselling and treatment adherence support for people affected by tuberculosis (TB) launched.
A pioneering new technical manual to provide psychosocial counselling and treatment adherence support for people with TB was launched online on the 14th of March 2021. The manual is authored by Sameer Sah, the International Programme Director of the UK based TB organisation TB Alert along with Dr Gillian Craig, a chartered psychologist with extensive experience in TB. The new psychosocial support guide addresses critical gaps in TB care and control by focusing on overcoming the psychological, social and economic factors that prevent people from accessing diagnosis, adhering to care plans and successfully completing treatment.
“The manual fulfils a huge knowledge gap among health and care providers that is critical to achieve good treatment outcomes for people with TB. It encourages and supports policymakers to incorporate and promote psychosocial support as an integral part of all TB programmes around the world,” said Sameer Sah, International Programme Director of TB Alert and a native of Nainital, Uttarakhand state of India.
“The Political Declaration issued at the 2018 United Nations High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) outlined strong targets and commitments to further strengthen communities, rights and gender (CRG) in national TB responses,” said Dr. Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the UN Stop TB Partnership. “This psychosocial support guidance is critical to strengthening TB responses for those most vulnerable, but it must also be accompanied by the appropriate mix of investments to enhance implementation and accountability, to ensure communities can implement themselves and/or monitor the effective implementation of this psychosocial support guidance as part of enhanced TB accountability. At Stop TB we support these efforts as part of a CRG-centred TB response.”
“Therapy today for tuberculosis and drug-resistant TB is fully oral, more effective and safer. However, success will not be complete unless we address the psychological and socio-economic needs of people affected by TB. This manual targets all providers of psychosocial support to act as one multidisciplinary team in pathways that improve outcomes and inspire decision-makers to set aside resources to introduce new models of care for old problems.” said Dr. Askar Yedilbayev, TB Team Lead, WHO Regional Office for Europe.
The TB Psychosocial Support guide was supported by an international reference group comprising TB survivors, members of multilateral organisations, TB activists, academia, researchers and representatives of civil society organizations working with various TB key populations.
TB Alert is the UK’s national tuberculosis charity, tbalert.org
The Union is a global scientific organisation working to improve health for people in low- and middle-income countries, theunion.org
