ROLES OF COUNSELLORS IN MITIGATING PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MENOPAUSAL CHALLENGES AMONG WOMEN IN PUBLIC HOSPITALS, ENUGU STATE

Abstract This study examined the roles of counsellors in mitigating physical and psychological menopausal challenges among women attending public hospitals in Enugu State. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. One research question and one null hypothesis guided the study. The population for the study comprised 30 counsellors drawn from five public hospitals in Enugu State. A structured questionnaire developed on a four-point Likert-type scale was used for data collection. The instrument consisted of six items and was face-validated by three experts from the Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The reliability of the instrument was determined using the Cronbach Alpha method, yielding a reliability coefficient of 0.81, indicating that the instrument was reliable. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation, while the t-test statistic was used to test the hypothesis at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed, among others, that counsellors play significant roles in mitigating physical and psychological menopausal challenges among women attending public hospitals in Enugu State by empowering women through health education to understand and manage menopausal symptoms effectively, and by assisting women to develop coping strategies for managing the physical and emotional changes associated with menopause. Based on the findings, it was recommended that continuous staff training, retraining, and professional development programmes should be organized to strengthen the capacity and competence of counsellors in addressing menopausal symptoms and related challenges among women in public hospitals.