Mental health counselling for abused women Time-related aspects of session Two issues may impact results and satisfaction of the participants with duration of session. First, people in rural Bangladesh usually do not measure time in terms of hours. Second, the lapse in time between the counselling session and the evaluation might have made recall an issue. To assess accuracy of the reporting of time, data collected on duration of the session was checked against some randomly-select- ed tapes from the sessions. Two categories of dura- tion of the session were checked: (a) two hours or more and (b) 15 minutes or less. The results showed that no sessions went beyond an hour in the first category. However, duration of the sessions among women reporting 15 minutes or less actually ranged from 12 minutes to one hour. Therefore, the partici- pants’ reports of time-related aspects of the session must be seen as reflection of their perception rather than actual time. Although not accurate, they are assumed to indicate how the time-related aspects of the session were assessed by the women. This is why we considered it important to report how du- ration of session was perceived by women. Table 3 shows that about 16% of the women considered the scheduled time for the session in- appropriate, 71% thought it was okay, and 13% considered it very convenient. The mean reported waiting-time was 48 minutes with the minimum waiting-time being zero and the maximum three hours. As reported by the women, about 16% had to wait more than an hour for the session while 52% had to wait half an hour or less. About 55% of the women were happy about the waiting-time, about 38% were unhappy. About 58% of those who felt bad and 50% of those who felt very bad about the waiting-time reported wait- ing more than one hour. Naved RT et al. Shamima said, Was not I takto (annoyed), while I was kept sitting and waiting? Afa (meaning elder sister used to refer to the paramedic) repeatedly made phone calls, and she was going out of the room. Would not this make me annoyed? … The child was crying. I would have left her behind but I come from a nuclear family. The other children (who she left home) were small. I was worried whether they would fall in the water. [Age 38 years, grade 2, non-poor, victim of physical vio- lence, three children] Data of in-depth interviews showed that women were unhappy about perceived long waiting-times mainly for the following reasons: (a) children, who accompanied them, kept crying and annoying them; (b) they had left children and their house in someone else’s charge; (c) the paramedics seemed to keep them waiting until it was convenient for them to call the women in. The paramedics seemed to work leisurely and seemingly wasted time gos- siping, chatting over phone, going here and there; (d) the sitting arrangement was not comfortable. It was hot, and there was no fan; and (e) snacks of- fered were not adequate. Interestingly, 22% of those who felt bad and 2% of those who felt very bad about it waited for less than 30 minutes. On the other hand, 17% of those who felt good and 8% of those who felt very good about the waiting-time waited for more than one hour. In-depth interview data give us a glimpse of how some women who had a long waiting-time could justify it. For example, Jamila, who reported wait- ing two and a half hours, tried to rationalize it as follows: How would I feel [about the waiting-time]? Table 3. Evaluation of time-related aspects of session by women (n=372) (%) Time related aspect Timing of session Waiting-time Duration of session Opinion regarding timing of session Very convenient Convenient Not convenient Not at all convenient How she felt about waiting-time and duration of session Very bad Bad Nothing Happy Very happy 482 13.2 70.7 16.1 - 4.6 33.3 7.5 50.3 4.3 0.5 3.2 - 68.8 27.4 JHPN