Mortuary Attendants Cry For Help
Lebogang Mosikare | Monday March 27, 2017 16:58
They have to take care of these different corpses regardless of how they died but because the dead deserves our respect before and after they are buried.
There is a lot of stigma surrounding the job of mortuary attendants, as this reporter learnt recently when two government mortuary attendants voluntarily relayed their problems to him.
The mortuary attendants at government hospitals lamented that despite the work they do, they feel that the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MHW) has and is continuing to neglect them. They said although some members of society despise their job, they do not care about that because their job puts bread on their tables.
Their main problem, the attendants said, is their employer who they said is deliberately neglecting to address their concerns.
The disgruntled attendants said over the years they relayed their concerns to their superiors including even at ministerial level during many consultative forums but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. The attendants’ main gripe with MHW is that the ministry is not providing them with counselling services in order to cope with the demands that come with the nature of their job.
They are of the view that the ministry does not care about their health despite the sensitive nature of their job.
“How many people will cope with working with dead people everyday? Our job is not for the fainthearted. We do our job for the love of it and nothing else,” said one concerned mortuary attendant.
She said on average they attend to four dead bodies everyday but they sometimes attend to more than 20 corpses.
Another added: “Our main problem with MHW is that we are not provided with counselling services despite the job we do.
Although we have over the years somehow managed to cope with the nature of our jobs, we sometimes relapse because working with corpses every day is not like other jobs.”
The attendants stated a myriad of problems they say affect them daily because of the nature of their occupation.
The problems range from being haunted by the sight of corpses when asleep, being moody, getting easily irritated and drinking alcohol to temporarily forget their job and many others.
“You wont believe us when we tell you that some of our colleagues were teetotalers before they joined this profession but are now heavy drinkers.
They did not drink alcohol but circumstances of our job forced them to drink. It is very a very painful experience.
What we are asking our employer to do is to simply provide us with periodic counselling services so that we can cope with the negative effects that come with our job,” said one of mortuary attendants, misery clearly written on her face.
Another added: “We harbour no ill motives against the ministry but we want the ministry to own up to its responsibilities and stop neglecting us.
If our concern is not addressed we will end up suffering from mental disorders. Our concern should be addressed with the urgency it deserves before this problem gets out of control”.
MHW’s spokesperson Doreen Motshegwa said they are aware of the problem. She said resources permitting, they will offer counselling to the mortuary attendants but they are currently constrained by lack of resources to offer the services.
Motshegwa added that other hospital officers are also in need of counseling services.
“We are still working on how we can address this problem. The mortuary attendants can individually be offered counselling services if they ask for it from our social workers although we have few social workers who cannot cope with the large number of personnel who need our services,” said Motshegwa.