New Resource: Who Cares? Iran’s Amazing Social Workers and Addiction Counsellors
In August 2015, Dr Scott Breslin, International Director of Operation Mercy, led a five-day seminar in Tehran (Iran) entitled “Caring for Caregivers”. Dr Breslin gives an overview of the workshop and shares his reflections on it in the attached report.
In August 2015, Dr Scott Breslin, International Director of Operation Mercy, led a five-day seminar in Tehran (Iran) entitled “Caring for Caregivers”. The idea came from Operation Mercy’s in-country leadership team. The Iranian Government Minister (who supervises NGOs) approved the idea, which illustrates the trust that the team has built with the authorities who must provide their consent and approval throughout the whole process.
The participants consisted of 65 Iranian social workers, addiction counsellors and managers from more than a dozen Iranian non-government and government organisations.
Dr Breslin gives an overview of the workshop and shares his reflections on it in the attached report, demonstrating that learning can be fun. It provides a compelling illustration of the importance of effective cross cultural communication in capacity building and staff empowerment activities (even more so when reaching out local female staff).
This seminar on staff care also reminds us all that duty of care goes beyond the legal requirement but is also a key element of any organisation development agenda in order to nurture staff and support engagement and motivation. Through this training, Operation Mercy wanted to also promote self care and organisational staff care policy.
These are all key themes for the CHS Alliance and our quality & accountability agenda.