SOME 8,602 individuals received some type of state-funded family counselling in 2021, according to the Annual Administrative Report 2021 of the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services, laid in the House of Representatives on October 2.

The National Family Services Division was set up in 1991 to promote healthy family functioning by providing "preventative, developmental and remedial" programmes and services, the report related. "Total number of persons receiving psychosocial support - 8,602.

"Couples and families benefited from the following services: Counselling (4,724), Co-parenting counselling (457), Advocacy (601), and Advice/information (2,820).

The report said three online parenting workshops provided information on positive parenting practices.

The parenting for men workshop had 71 people registered, out of which 46 were selected, of whom 35 attended, with 34 receiving certificates.

A workshop, Parenting in a Pandemic, had 152 people registered, of whom 69 attended (20 males, 49 females), with 61 receiving certificates (19 males, 30 females.)

A co-parenting workshop had 108 people registered, of whom 55 attended (20 males, 35 females), with 49 receiving certificates (19 males, 30 females).

A grandparenting workshop had 68 people registered, of whom 61 attended for at least one session. Some 53 received certificates (six males, 47 females). Participants ranged in age from 29 to 75 years old.

The division hosted 21 radio programmes, It's family time, Let's talk.

For prison inmates, the division held modules on parenting (three sessions) and domestic violence (two sessions.)

It said participants consisted of 18 females inmates (namely 14 adult females and four juvenile females) plus ten male inmates.

The division also presented a Family Friday initiative on the ministry's Facebook page offering 29 helpful tips on family life and parenting.

It also offered 18 virtual outreach sessions.

The report also spoke of the "assessment, care and rehabilitation" work of the ministry's Social Displacement Unit.

"A national head count of persons living on the street showed that a total of 327 persons were sleeping on the streets."

Some 21 public reports of people living on the streets were addressed or investigated, the report added, without giving more detail.

Some 245 individuals received referrals to substance-abuse rehabilitation.

Otherwise the unit conducted 309 in-office social work interventions. Some 19 elderly individuals received accommodation under community care, which otherwise supported 71 residents at 18 homes of older persons nationwide.

Regarding substance abuse, the report said in that year some seven people graduated from the Piparo Empowerment Centre which provides residential treatment and rehabilitation for male drug addicts using the therapeutic community model. Eleven new residents were enrolled there, four students completed their practicum training and 405 counselling sessions were conducted.

The ministry's HIV/AIDS Co-ordinating Unit sensi

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