Orphans and Vulnerable Children - CRIN

Introduction and Objectives for Topic 2

Many orphans and vulnerable children experience great distress and trauma. In this topic, you’ll

be exploring how mental or psychological stress and depression affects children and the impact it

has on their emotional and mental development and well-being. Home visitors need to understand

how children function psychologically and emotionally, in order to help them overcome their mental

and spiritual anguish.

There is more emphasis placed by care organisations on the material or physical needs of OVC,

but mental and spiritual support is also crucial to OVC’s development and ability to live well-balanced

lives in the future. Participants in the training course will learn counselling skills and work on strategies

that will help OVC to cope with the many challenges that they face by strengthening their inner

resources.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this topic, participants will be able to:

 Define Psychosocial Support(PSS)

 Understand why psychosocial support is important in caring for vulnerable children.

 Identify the types of PSS being offered to OVC in their communities.

(^156) Unit 2, Module 2 Guide to Mobilising and Strengthening Community-Led Care for Orphans and Vulnerable Children