Model Village Pilot Project: Revitalizing Karakert

Infrastructure | Economy | Health care | Social development

Health care

The fundamental principle underlying COAF’s health care program is that good health is a necessary condition to maintain basic quality of life for both children and adults. Therefore, sustained and preventive health care is a key component of COAF’s integrated development program, as it contributes to higher productivity, economic growth, and overall improved wellbeing. The primary objectives of our health care program are increasing access, improving quality and raising public awareness on health care. COAF’s current health care program consists of:

Modernization of Primary Health Care Units (PHCUs), including:

• Providing necessary equipment, furniture and emergency transportation to PHCUs;
• Establishing a revolving drug fund in PHCUs to ensure sustained access to drugs;
• Establishing fee-for-service medical services beyond primary health care (e.g., dental care, eye care, expert diagnostics) to ensure self-sustainability of PHCUs;
• Training of PHCU staff based on developed-world standards of health care.

Community health education, including:

• Implementing educational programs on child health care and prenatal care for parents and expecting mothers;
• Promoting a healthy lifestyle;
• Increasing reproductive health and HIV/AIDS awareness among children, adolescents and adults.

Mobile medical teams for:

• Providing dental and eye care;
• Offering pediatric and gynecological care on-site, as a temporary service, before permanent solutions are in place.

Accomplishments

Before COAF could begin renovating and providing up-to-date medical equipment and supplies to Karakert’s ambulatory care facility, the village residents had an opportunity to receive immediate care from mobile medical teams and a pediatrician-consultant posted in the village. COAF also provided the Karakert ambulatory care facility with an emergency transportation vehicle, basic equipment, and more than 70 essential drugs. To date, COAF’s health care program has produced the following results:

Through the mobile dental clinic operated in collaboration with the Armenian Dental Society of California, COAF provided:

• Screening of 710 children;
• Treatment of 294 children diagnosed with dental problems.

Through the mobile eye clinic operated in collaboration with the Armenian Eye Care Project, COAF provided:

• Screening of 633 children and 54 adults;
• Follow-up detailed screening and treatment of 52 children at the specialized ophthalmologic clinic in Yerevan;
• Follow-up eye surgery and prosthesis for one patient.

Through the Integrated Child Health Initiative established in collaboration with the Children’s Health Care Association (CHCA), COAF offered:

• Screening of 689 children, women and expecting mothers;
• Follow-up treatment for more than 60 percent of all screened patients on-site;
• Follow-up diagnostics, treatment and surgery for 67 children at the regional hospital and specialized clinics in Yerevan.

Through the Community Health Education and Promoting Healthy Schools program implemented in collaboration with the CHCA, Jinishian Memorial Foundation, United Methodist Committee on Relief and International Relief and Development, the residents of Karakert were provided with:

• HIV/AIDS prevention seminar for local migrant-workers;
• Equipped and furnished health rooms with trained nurses in one school and two kindergartens;
• Educational projects and activities specially designed for children to promote healthy lifestyle, good hygiene and preventive care.

Through capacity building projects implemented in collaboration with the Institute of Child and Adolescent Health (ICAH), Armenian Association of Pediatricians, MOH Health Program Implementation Unit (HPIU) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), COAF exercised its commitment to develop professional capacity through:

• Creation of high health care standards;
• Improved coordination of health care and referral systems;
• Initiation of Continuing Medical Education (CME) in pediatrics;
• Development of educational manuals and protocols, covering 16 pediatric areas, by 20 national experts, including senior staff from the Ministry of Health (MOH), the ICAH, the National Institute of Health, and the Yerevan State Medical University;
• Implementation of pilot training program for 24 pediatricians and family physicians from all villages in Armavir Marz;
• Five- and four-day training programs on clinical methodology on child care for 28 medical doctors and nurses;
• Eleven-month and six-month training programs on family medicine for one doctor and one nurse;
• Seminar on the rational use of GSK’s new medicines for 30 doctors from all villages in Armavir Marz.

Current Activities

• Seminars on various health education issues for the general population;
• Distribution of books on prenatal and child health care issues to reproductive-age women;
• Seminars for women of reproductive age on prenatal and child health care issues.