Care's Home Based Care Working Wonders in HIV/Aids Fight
By Yuyo Nachali-Kambikambi, The Times of Zambia, July 27, 2005
WITH the onset of the HIV and AIDS pandemic and the ever-increasing demand on health personnel to meet the needs of the chronically ill, it has become necessary to look at alternative approaches to care and support that encourage preventative health seeking practices for example positive living and also help to decongest the over-crowded health centres.
Home-Based Care, now popularly known as HBC, is a concept that is now being encouraged everywhere in the world, a system that provides prevention, care and support services in the home environment to meet the overall needs of people suffering from prolonged illnesses.
In a typical Zambian setting, families, nuclear and extended alike, have always provided care for their loved ones in times of illness. However the scale of the HIV pandemic has caused huge economic challenges and tremendous strain on family careers.
The loss of labour and cash income as well as the additional costs of providing medication are reducing families' capacity to provide nutrition, education and health care for their loved ones.
In addition, the nature of AIDS means that caring requires specific skills, knowledge, equipment and access to drugs which families do not necessarily have. In such circumstances, external support is badly needed to lessen the physical and emotional pain, and also help families avoid destitution.
Against this background, CARE International in Zambia has launched a Home Based Care (HBC) programme as part of its Programme Partnership Agreement (PPA) with DFID. The programme will focus on rural areas, which tend to be undeserved, and will provide support to households affected by chronic illness by building on the existing strengths of the family and the wider community in a given area.
The objectives of the programme are to: enable patients to live in dignity throughout the course of their disease, empower care givers to provide quality care, and provide surviving parents and guardians with knowledge and skills to take better care of themselves and the children in their care. It is hoped too, that the interventions will assist some chronically ill patients regain their strength and return to productive activities.
Positive Living is central to CARE's HBC model and addresses the total life of a person living with HIV and AIDS, inspiring hope and a greater sense of control over the disease progression. The model has three components: care for chronically ill patients, care for the care giver, and community awareness and prevention.
CARE's HBC programme will take place in seven districts predominantly in Eastern and Southern Provinces, which have the highest HIV prevalence rates outside of the urban centres of Lusaka and Ndola.
The programme aims to reach 15,000 chronically ill patients in the following districts: Petauke, Katete and Chipata in Eastern Province; Livingstone, Kazungula and Kalomo in Southern Province; and Kabwe in Central Province.
Approximately, 4,000 volunteer care supporters will be trained to work in the seven programme districts. These volunteers will conduct regular home visits to ensure that appropriate nursing; medical and emotional support is given to patients, as well as HIV education and assistance with future planning for children and other dependents.
HBC kits with basic medicines and personal hygiene items will also be provided to volunteers to help them provide pain relief and symptom management for patients.
The programme, which was officially launched in July 2005, will seek ways to increase the working relationships between government and NGOs by working through already existing district health structures. In particular, the DHMTs and health centres will be key partners in supervising and monitoring programme activities.
CARE's HBC Project Manager, Maureen Mubanga is excited about the programme. "The difference with this particular project is that it is not only looking at the HIV and AIDS infected and affected like most do but we are deliberately looking at all chronically or terminally ill patients who need love, support and encouragement," Mubanga said.
Mubanga admitted that care giving can be a stressful job and said that care and support for the care givers themselves is imperative. "We hope to have regular events to bring together volunteers to provide them with new information, as well as a space to share experiences from the field and learn from each other," Mubanga emphasised.
Adding: "CARE will use a community based approach for its programme to help volunteers overcome transportation problems in remote rural areas. Each volunteer will work within a maximum radius of 5km covering between 25 to 50 households thus making it much easier for them to care for the chronically ill."
The programme also has a primary health care component, which aims to increase access to preventative health care such as bed nets for malaria and chlorine for safe drinking water. Such measures help increase the resilience of people living with AIDS to opportunistic infections which can seriously weaken their health and ability to work.
Ultimately, through the HBC programme, CARE International-Zambia, hopes to create a sustainable delivery mechanism for home based care in rural areas that provides support along the prevention to care continuum to patients, families, communities and volunteer care supporters to enable them to mitigate and cope with the impact of HIV and AIDS and other chronic diseases.
(The author is CARE International Zambia-Programme Partnership Agreement (PPA) Information and Communication Officer).
Source: AllAfrica.com
WITH the onset of the HIV and AIDS pandemic and the ever-increasing demand on health personnel to meet the needs of the chronically ill, it has become necessary to look at alternative approaches to care and support that encourage preventative health seeking practices for example positive living and also help to decongest the over-crowded health centres.
Home-Based Care, now popularly known as HBC, is a concept that is now being encouraged everywhere in the world, a system that provides prevention, care and support services in the home environment to meet the overall needs of people suffering from prolonged illnesses.
In a typical Zambian setting, families, nuclear and extended alike, have always provided care for their loved ones in times of illness. However the scale of the HIV pandemic has caused huge economic challenges and tremendous strain on family careers.
The loss of labour and cash income as well as the additional costs of providing medication are reducing families' capacity to provide nutrition, education and health care for their loved ones.
In addition, the nature of AIDS means that caring requires specific skills, knowledge, equipment and access to drugs which families do not necessarily have. In such circumstances, external support is badly needed to lessen the physical and emotional pain, and also help families avoid destitution.
Against this background, CARE International in Zambia has launched a Home Based Care (HBC) programme as part of its Programme Partnership Agreement (PPA) with DFID. The programme will focus on rural areas, which tend to be undeserved, and will provide support to households affected by chronic illness by building on the existing strengths of the family and the wider community in a given area.
The objectives of the programme are to: enable patients to live in dignity throughout the course of their disease, empower care givers to provide quality care, and provide surviving parents and guardians with knowledge and skills to take better care of themselves and the children in their care. It is hoped too, that the interventions will assist some chronically ill patients regain their strength and return to productive activities.
Positive Living is central to CARE's HBC model and addresses the total life of a person living with HIV and AIDS, inspiring hope and a greater sense of control over the disease progression. The model has three components: care for chronically ill patients, care for the care giver, and community awareness and prevention.
CARE's HBC programme will take place in seven districts predominantly in Eastern and Southern Provinces, which have the highest HIV prevalence rates outside of the urban centres of Lusaka and Ndola.
The programme aims to reach 15,000 chronically ill patients in the following districts: Petauke, Katete and Chipata in Eastern Province; Livingstone, Kazungula and Kalomo in Southern Province; and Kabwe in Central Province.
Approximately, 4,000 volunteer care supporters will be trained to work in the seven programme districts. These volunteers will conduct regular home visits to ensure that appropriate nursing; medical and emotional support is given to patients, as well as HIV education and assistance with future planning for children and other dependents.
HBC kits with basic medicines and personal hygiene items will also be provided to volunteers to help them provide pain relief and symptom management for patients.
The programme, which was officially launched in July 2005, will seek ways to increase the working relationships between government and NGOs by working through already existing district health structures. In particular, the DHMTs and health centres will be key partners in supervising and monitoring programme activities.
CARE's HBC Project Manager, Maureen Mubanga is excited about the programme. "The difference with this particular project is that it is not only looking at the HIV and AIDS infected and affected like most do but we are deliberately looking at all chronically or terminally ill patients who need love, support and encouragement," Mubanga said.
Mubanga admitted that care giving can be a stressful job and said that care and support for the care givers themselves is imperative. "We hope to have regular events to bring together volunteers to provide them with new information, as well as a space to share experiences from the field and learn from each other," Mubanga emphasised.
Adding: "CARE will use a community based approach for its programme to help volunteers overcome transportation problems in remote rural areas. Each volunteer will work within a maximum radius of 5km covering between 25 to 50 households thus making it much easier for them to care for the chronically ill."
The programme also has a primary health care component, which aims to increase access to preventative health care such as bed nets for malaria and chlorine for safe drinking water. Such measures help increase the resilience of people living with AIDS to opportunistic infections which can seriously weaken their health and ability to work.
Ultimately, through the HBC programme, CARE International-Zambia, hopes to create a sustainable delivery mechanism for home based care in rural areas that provides support along the prevention to care continuum to patients, families, communities and volunteer care supporters to enable them to mitigate and cope with the impact of HIV and AIDS and other chronic diseases.
(The author is CARE International Zambia-Programme Partnership Agreement (PPA) Information and Communication Officer).
Source: AllAfrica.com
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 8:32 am
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