Give Former Staff of Collapsed Banks Psychological Support ― Psychologist

Vice President of the Psychological Association of Ghana (PAG), Dr. Collins Agyemang Badu has called on government to render some form of psychological support to workers who were affected by the collapse of some indigenous banks.

These supports, according to him, would go a long way in releasing the pressure that may have mounted on the aggrieved staff following the massive layoff.

“We are told that 2,895 are likely going to lose their jobs…we need to envision the challenges that comes with it. It is about time we give them psychological support or else be ready for more woes,” he said.

Speaking on Accra based GHOne TV, yesterday, Dr. Agyeman Badu said government had failed in properly handling the crises adding that “they failed to incorporate the role of psychologists in the layoff process.”

“Check the records, if banks go through such situations, you go beyond just communication…industrial psychologist comes into the picture and there are a number of things that we do.

“It is about time at the macro level that we begin to see psychologists as relevant in everything we do. The government should know that we need psychologists in every stream of affairs,” he explained.

According to the psychologist, change in itself is not an easy process and laying off a worker is even more daunting.

“People structure their lives with the time they work, people form social interaction with their work life. It is a means of survival and changing people and the way the live bring untold pressure,” Dr. Agyemang Badu noted.

Former staff of defunct UT Bank, Mr. Stephen Anning said the psychological torture he together with other aggrieved staff face was real and not an overstated fact.

Narrating his ordeal, he said, “You sit at home, you have kids, they have fever and there is no money; are you not going to face such anxieties, won’t you think, won’t you go through emotional instability?”

“Some psychological support prior to the layoff would have averted some of the trauma we are facing presently,” he added.

Mr. Anning therefore appealed to the President, the Governor of The Bank of Ghana, Minister of Finance and Parliament to have a relook at their compensation demands and make payments as soon as possible before some of them get crushed under the pressure.

By: Grace Ablewor Sogbey/ [email protected]