Family counselors in Nakuru County have been urged to create and strengthen grassroots networks in order to access back ground family counseling needs.
According to the founder and director of Family Health Initiative, a community-based public health oriented organization that is based in Nakuru, Dr.Daniel Kimani, there is need for local family counselors to reach out to remote areas in the county so as to extend their services to common members of the public.
Kimani, while talking to this writer in his office on Tuesday observed that many family counselors were concentrating their services in urban centres to members of the middle class and the able in society, while neglecting people on grassroots levels.
He noted that many cases that could be solved through family counseling are left to degenerate due to lack of grassroots networks.
“We have not extended our family counseling services because most of us only target well to do and middle class people who are in positions to access and afford such services,” he said.
“Yet most crucial cases in rural and informal settings are neglected. We should think of how we can extend our services to grassroots levels,” he added.
He further noted that many cases of child neglect, family violence, drug and alcohol abuse, depression, suicide, poverty among others that are prevalent in rural and informal settlements in urban areas can be mitigated if family counselors and other stakeholders expand their services to such areas.