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Home  Community Outreach Programme Home-Based Care Project |
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Home-Based Care Project |
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Topsy’s model for Home-Based Care was a major inclusion in establishment of Best Practice in this field as determined by the state-appointed NICDAM (National Institute for Community Development and Management) study.
The key to Topsy’s success has been to identify, employ and train field-workers from the community in which the project is active. By using trained local people as field-workers, the project gains almost automatic credibility and support from communities in which the provision of such relief services around HIV and AIDS is heavily juxtaposed against a backdrop of differing cultural beliefs and the stigmatisation of the disease in general.
All field-workers are permanent employees of the Topsy Foundation and this approach to Home-Based Care ensures quality service delivery standards with considerably enhanced continuum of care for local children and families/caregivers. Field-workers are able to establish trust and build and maintain relationships with the patients and their families - a necessary part of working with people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA’S).
The approach compares favourably to general practice in which many organisations have opted to rely on community volunteers in the provision of their care services.
Topsy’s trained field-workers are in daily contact with local families who are severely affected or infected by HIV and AIDS as well as those who are suffering the consequences of extreme poverty and lack of access to basic community infrastructure and care. In the communities, which Topsy serves, access to health clinics, for example, is restricted to those who can physically visit the clinic and seek medical attention. For those who are in some way incapacitated, their only hope is for Topsy to offer its services through a home-visit.
Topsy’s field-workers thus offer basic medical care for illnesses, such as TB and pneumonia, associated with HIV and AIDS, as well as wound dressings, bed baths, bed turning and training of the family members of the patient, where available, in these tasks. They develop strong relationships with the patients and their families, give guidance, support, and provide a listening ear.
In cases, where expert medical or social welfare attention is required, the field-worker will present the case to Topsy’s medical doctor or nurse and/or one of its social workers, who will in turn accompany the field-worker to the needy beneficiary and administer whatever treatment and/or counselling that may be necessary.
When not calling on specific patients, the field-workers go from house to house to offer the services of the project. They also document information about each household, such as the number of family members, how many are employed, how many children live there, levels of wellness amongst family members, and so on. This crucial information helps Topsy prepare for future needs within the area.
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