Health volunteers complete training

Normal, Youth & Careers
Source:

The National, Wednesday 27th March, 2013

SIXTEEN new volunteers of the community home-based care (CHBC) programme run by ATprojects Inc. have completed a week training before they can carry out duties in their villages as basic health care volunteers.
The medical support programme empowers people in the rural communities to provide medical support and basic health care and treatment to their fellow villagers, a programme that is touching the lives of people and saving lives.
This includes being able to take body temperatures; body weight; dressing sores, cuts and scrapes; treating scabies and other body fungal; and being able to give only medication such as Panadol for simple body aches, and caring of people living with HIV and AIDS.
The new volunteers said they are happy with joining this program as they feel they will be touching the lives of their fellow villagers and those in surrounding communities.
Field supervisor and nursing officer Josephine Andreas, who facilitated the training, said the CHBC volunteers will also be conducting awareness in their communities on issues such as HIV and AIDS, sexual transmitted diseases and general good hygiene practices as part of their duties.
She said people with more  complex diseases would be referred to the nearest health clinics or hospitals.
This is because the CHBC volunteers are only able provide basic health care and treatment and do not have the qualification to prescribe medical drugs such as antibiotics to any patient they treat. 
Andreas said this is when a referral can be made for such patients.
She said they would be part of the ATprojects CHBC volunteer group which is already in a number of sites in Eastern Highlands.
Meantime, ATprojects director Steve Layton said the CHBC programme was initially to provide home based care in the community to People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH).
He said PLWH are often stigmatized in their communities and are abandoned when their condition gets much worse, and this is where CHBC volunteers can come in to assist in caring for them.
However, due to this stigmatism, such PLWH patients still find it difficult to see the CHBC volunteers at their CHBC site office, so the CHBC concept was broaden to include basic care and treatment of other simple ailments and illnesses that may afflict their community members.
This makes it easier for the PLWH patients to turn up at the site offices for general checkups. The CHBC volunteers also are impressed to ensure that these patients must take their anti-retroviral medication.
Too often because they are living in the villages, they are not aware of the importance of taking their medication on time. Sister Andreas also adds that through monitoring of their conditions by their CHBC volunteers, a referral can be made to such clinics as the Clinton Foundation clinics and other affiliated clinics.
Meanwhile, Layton said all consultations and treatments done by each CHBC volunteer of each patient they see is recorded.
“A form has been developed by ATprojects to keep an accurate data of what illnesses afflict each area where the CHBC volunteers work in, so that the appropriate attention can be given as well as keeping an accurate data on how many PLWHs are in an area where the programme is being carried out.
“The information is being stored at the ATprojects Centre in a database and can be used by relevant health stake holders for accurate statistics,” he said.