Role of counselors

Counselors are the backbone of the Operation ASHA model. A counselor is a full-time employee of Operation ASHA, who generally belongs to the community where the DOTS center is located. OpASHA's counseling corps is highly-trained, with half of our resources going to training and deployment of counselors.  Each counselor is fully responsible for maintaining a meaningful relationship with their patients, counseling individuals and communities, dispensing medicines and ensuring the upkeep of the centre. 

Our counselors are changing the mindset of individuals, communities and employers when it comes to the stigma surrounding tuberculosis. We have seen more people coming forward for TB testing and treatment, increasing our detection rates by two-fold.  Over 80 jobs have been saved by counselors who have gone to educate employers about tuberculosis and 14 patients have allowed to stay in their home their families due to our counselors' efforts.