Community Health Services
Annual Volunteer Get Together
Lighthouse through its Community Health Services organizes an annual get-together function for its volunteers from 19 Community Based Organizations (CBOs) that it works with in Lilongwe City. This function brings all the volunteers to one place as one body.
The aim of the function is to give them room to showcase and publicize activities which they do in their respective communities whilst delivering quality community home based care services to patients. This function also helps them to check the progress of their activities and re-plan for the future. This is one of the many ways through which CBOs provide feedback to their partners who include Lighthouse and the communities at large.
t’s time for action and moving forward – the Lighthouse executive Director Prof. Sam Phiri sets the motion during the Big Walk.
Previous functions have been held at various places such as Masintha ground in Kawale, and Chipala Primary School ground in Area 50. The themes change annually, and are usually in line with the AIDS Day theme of the previous year and activities include: a sensitization Big Walk, viewing of volunteer exhibitions and open air activities.
Annually, CBOs compete for a trophy as part of promoting growth among them. The winner for 2015 was Chilumba CBO who went away with the trophy and MK500 000.00 cash prize.
Nurse-led Community ART Program (NCAP)
The Lighthouse Trust piloted “Nurse-led Community ART Program (NCAP)” initiative aims to encourage long term retention to care of stable patients on ART by using outreach facilities identified by PLHIV support groups. This intervention aims to serve patients that are; registered with Lighthouse at Kamuzu Central Hospital (KCH) or Martin Preuss Centre at Bwaila hospital, adult (i.e. 18 years old and above), on the same first or second ART regimen for at least 12 months, cleared as a stable patient by a clinical officer: without serious complications or other related infectious diseases, Viralogically suppressed, and live within Lighthouse Community Health Services (CHS) catchment areas.
Clients that meet the above enrollment criteria are given an option of seeing a health care provider at a pre-selected outreach location identified by Lighthouse Community Health Services team. Once a client has been registered in the NCAP initiative, he/she will continue receiving HIV services, including ARV refills, at the outreach point in the community (except in special circumstances where referral to the clinic is necessary). This means that patients are provided 3 months ART supply and that they will be required to meet their next appointment in the community at the outreach point. The approach assures that patients see a health care provider every three months as recommended by the national guideline, receive limited essential services at a place convenient to them, and have the opportunity to come to Lighthouse Clinics to receive specialist care whenever appropriate.
Services provided at an outreach location include, but not limited to; adherence monitoring (pill count), refill of prescriptions, documentation of current status on patient passport and patient chart (that will later be entered into EMR), issuing of next appointment date, provision of condoms, screening for comorbidities such as tuberculosis, hypertension, among others.
Community Empowerment and Partnerships
Through community empowerment and partnerships, Lighthouse works with CBOs to bring about different initiatives that will be beneficial to the community.
For example, through this program Chilumba CBO constructed an office block with support from the community members and well-wishers for the smooth running of its operations.
Ndife Amodzi
Lighthouse’s “Ndife Amodzi” program is a community-led project that provides ongoing educational, treatment adherence and psychosocial support to stable ART clients in Lilongwe City. “Ndife Amodzi” means “we are all one” in Chichewa, the local language in Malawi, and highlights the central concept of the program: a community working together to support persons living with HIV (PLHIV) with greater involvement of PLHIV in providing this support.
Lighthouse collaborates with local Community Based Organizations (CBOs) to accomplish this program. Enrolment is facilitated by community volunteers that have desks in the waiting areas of Lighthouse clinics and three health centres located in the city; Kawale, Area 18 and Area 25. These volunteers sensitize patients to the program and complete the necessary referral paperwork after clients themselves choose a volunteer from their community using a binder with a list of volunteers, along with their pictures, categorized by neighborhoods.
‘Since the program started in November 2005, 11485 clients have been enrolled in Ndife Amodzi as of March 2016. By March 2016, 73% of the enrolled clients were active in the program and 96% of them were on ART.’
Meaningful Involvement of people living with HIV as Expert patients
Lighthouse through its Community Health Services program has established 17 support groups of people living with HIV (PLHIV). Some of the members are volunteers from the CBOs. Lighthouse has trained such PLHIV as expert patients and involves them in conducting group education sessions in the community as well as at Lighthouse clinics since 2011 to promote ART adherence and prevention of opportunistic infections among PLHIV.
This approach is providing a human face to the pandemic, thereby promoting acceptance of one’s HIV+ sero-status, treatment adherence, disclosure and reduction the work load of already overwhelmed professional staff.
Linkage of Community Health Services program and Back-to-Care (B2C)
One of Lighthouse’s most innovative programs, the Back-To-Care (B2C) program, is aimed at reducing lost to follow-up (LTFU) in the ART. Community Care Supporters who are the community facilitators of the Community Health Services program strengthen the B2C program by following up clients that are presumed LTFU from the ART program at the two Lighthouse clinics.