Mental health counselling for abused women Table 5. Evaluation of performance of paramedics by women (n=372) (%) Response category Aspect of performance of paramedic Very good Good The way she treated her 56.7 43.3 Slow OK Pace of session 0.8 98.4 A lot Moderately Listened attentively 96.5 3.5 Encouraged way exploration 14.8 42.2 She was judgmental 0.5 0.3 Yes 94.4 87.1 Very 15.7 Not useful 10.5 Slightly 73.5 Harmful 0.3 Understood her Self-confidence encouraged Usefulness of session 9, non-poor, victim of physical and sexual vio- lence] When women interviewed in-depth were asked whether the paramedics have treated them equally or looked down upon them, all the women appre- ciated equal treatment of the paramedics towards them. She did not talk to me the way rich people usu- ally talk to the poor. She treated me like a sister. She did not use any bad language. She was not conceited. She is a good person. [Asmani, age 27 years, grade 5, non-poor, victim of sexual violence] I liked [how she treated me]. She is a doctor (…). Her position is much higher than mine. Thanks go to her for treating us equally and having for us the same sitting arrangement as her own. [Rahela, age 36 years, grade 3, non-poor, victim of physical and sexual violence] She showed that she cares a lot [for me]. She did not ignore me because she is a doctor. I am not lying. She is a doctor and I am an illiterate woman. Whatever she did she did it nicely and with a lot of care. [Sayema, age 27 years, no edu- cation, non-poor, victim of physical violence] About 98% of the women considered the pace of the session appropriate, which is in line with the findings from the qualitative data. About 99% of the women reported that, during the session, the paramedic had a non-judgemental at- titude. About 94% felt that the paramedic under- Volume 27 | Number 4 | August 2009 Fast 0.8 No 0.0 43.1 99.2 No 5.7 12.9 Naved RT et al. All 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 stood her very well while the remaining women thought that she understood them more or less well. The paramedics encouraged about 57% of the women to explore a way out of the situation. Overall reaction to session To a directly-asked question whether the paramed- ic encouraged her to be self-confident, about 87% of the surveyed women answered in the positive. About 23% of the women who were encouraged to explore a way out of their current situation in terms of violence considered this discussion futile while 52% reported getting the idea that there might be some solution to her problem. Overall, 74% of the women reported that the session was useful a bit, and 16% reported that it was very useful. When asked in what way they thought the session was useful, 85% of the women who considered it useful said that it was so as it made them feel ‘halka’ (light). About 22% of the women said that it was useful as it helped them understand violence against them was not their fault. The paramedic’s depth of un- derstanding and her empathy were mentioned as being considered useful by 19% of the women. About 8% of these women said that they found a new source of help, and 6% reported that they found a new way of dealing with violence. About 3% were happy that ICDDR,B was attaching im- portance to this issue. About 11% of the women interviewed did not consider the session useful. One woman said that the session was harmful as violence by husband in- creased due to disclosure of violence at this session. She commented that her husband interrogated her 485