St. Albert’s Home-based Care Program
The St. Albert's home-based care team includes a nurse, a person who provides spiritual care for patients and families, and, often, one or two nursing students. The team travels by pick-up truck to villages on the escarpment and in the valley to visit the homes of the chronically ill (for example, people with AIDS, asthma, hypertension, cancer, tuberculosis (TB), or disabilities).
When possible, the team provides families with simple medicines such as the pain reliever paracetamol, bandages, lotions, and protective items such as gloves and linen savers.
St. Albert’s trains two levels of volunteers to care for the chronically ill
A primary caregivers are taught to care for a chronically ill individual. The St. Albert's home-based care team then follows up with home visits. The program has trained more than 1,000 primary caregivers.
Community volunteers are community members trained in basic counseling, nutrition, and nursing care. They visit families of the chronically ill. When the St. Albert's home-based care team arrives in the village, the volunteer directs the team to the families in greatest need and tells them about who lived in urban areas when they became sick and have returned to the village to live out their illness.
Community volunteers are unpaid but receive incentives for their help. For example, a volunteer may not have to stand in a queue at the borehole, grinding mill, or health clinic. Or people in the village may weed the volunteer’s field or harvest or store the person’s grain.
The home-based care team formerly traveled to communities three times per week, but chronic fuel shortages, rising cost and inflation have reduced that to twice a month, and sometimes they can’t go for months.
Other services provided by St. Albert's Community Home-Base Care Program
Picture Caption: A group of St. Albert's community volunteers that has received new kits to help with their home visits. The St. Albert's team distributed the kits, which were provided by World Vision.
The St. Albert's home-based care team includes a nurse, a person who provides spiritual care for patients and families, and, often, one or two nursing students. The team travels by pick-up truck to villages on the escarpment and in the valley to visit the homes of the chronically ill (for example, people with AIDS, asthma, hypertension, cancer, tuberculosis (TB), or disabilities).
When possible, the team provides families with simple medicines such as the pain reliever paracetamol, bandages, lotions, and protective items such as gloves and linen savers.
St. Albert’s trains two levels of volunteers to care for the chronically ill
A primary caregivers are taught to care for a chronically ill individual. The St. Albert's home-based care team then follows up with home visits. The program has trained more than 1,000 primary caregivers.
Community volunteers are community members trained in basic counseling, nutrition, and nursing care. They visit families of the chronically ill. When the St. Albert's home-based care team arrives in the village, the volunteer directs the team to the families in greatest need and tells them about who lived in urban areas when they became sick and have returned to the village to live out their illness.
Community volunteers are unpaid but receive incentives for their help. For example, a volunteer may not have to stand in a queue at the borehole, grinding mill, or health clinic. Or people in the village may weed the volunteer’s field or harvest or store the person’s grain.
The home-based care team formerly traveled to communities three times per week, but chronic fuel shortages, rising cost and inflation have reduced that to twice a month, and sometimes they can’t go for months.
Other services provided by St. Albert's Community Home-Base Care Program
- Information on HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections in schools, rural communities and farm resettlement areas.
- Support for widows, single mothers, orphan-headed families and grandmothers raising orphans. Support can include food, school fees, uniforms, and seeds and fertilizer.
- Orphan care. The hospital pays the fees and expenses for several hundred orphans to keep them in school.
- Establishing peer groups for youth in and out of school.
- Helps families organize income-generating projects.
- Spiritual care and support services.
Picture Caption: A group of St. Albert's community volunteers that has received new kits to help with their home visits. The St. Albert's team distributed the kits, which were provided by World Vision.