Rokotsino Meyase
CLHTC Trainer, CIHSR Dimapur, Nagaland
Introduction: India is a country of great diversity. Only 32% of our people live in cities where the healthcare facilities are available and accessible whereas 68% of our people live in rural areas who need to depend on faith healers,traditional methods,pujaris, Quack etc. We lost mothers to pregnancy related problems and million deaths have been due to avoidable causes such as Diarrhea,Pneumonia, Neonatal sepsis, Nutritional deficiencies and perinatal causes. But the good news is 80% of them do not need a Doctor to treat them but prevention and treatment of most of the common ailments in the rural context can be done by any well-trained,non-medical,lay person.
NGO/FBO workers who live among the poor at the grassroots level and are committed to their welfare,if adequately trained could prove to be a change agent,promoting good health and preventing illnesses by creating health awareness program from wherever they are.
Thus was born the Community Lay-Leaders Health Training Certificate Course (CLHTC) in the year 2011 as a one-year distance learning course designed and run by the distance education department of Christian Medical College,Vellore, to ensure the imparting of quality medical information in a cost effective manner, to a large number of motivated people.The motto of the program is “BE A CHANGE AGENT”. They have 24 regional teaching Centre all over India and Christian Institute of Health Sciences and Research Centre (CIHSR) is one regional teaching Centre in North East India.
Overall Objective: The overall objective of the course is to train NGO/FBO/Social workers, School teachers etc. serving in remote areas,in primary healthcare,with a focus on enabling the community to take responsibility for its own health,through health education and delivery of sustained healthcare thus transforming the health scenario of our nation.
Eligibility:
• Minimum 12th standard or equivalent
• Commitment to serve people in the remote areas of our country
• Should be based in remote areas of the country where medical facilities are poor.
Curriculum:
• Six easy to readbooklets on Problem based,well-illustrated, Self-Learning Module (SLM)
• The candidates are required to do assignment for eachbooklets.
• With the related topics, a number of clinical skills like BP checking,temperature, Assessment of dehydration,preparation of ORS etc.are taught.
• Each trainee completes a health related project during the course of the year.
• Video clips & animations are used to aid learning.
• Health promotion activities like health education with audio-visual aids,health songs,skits, role plays etc. are taught.
• Structure of the course
• Course duration is 1 year
• Three contact program of 20 days each with a minimum gap of 3 months between the contact program
• Course offered in Hindi, English and Tamil in different Centers, in CIHSR we conduct it in English.
Course Fee:
• The course fee is Rs.8000/- for the whole course includingfood and lodging,study materials etc. which is subsidized by CMC Vellore distance education department. The fees can be paid in 2 equal installments.
Award of certificates:
• Candidates should fulfill the following criteria:
• 100% attendance in contact classes is mandatory.
• Obtain pass marks in the internal and final examinations conducted at the regional Centreduring the contact programs.
• Satisfactory completion of assignments and project work.
CLHTC experiences in CIHSR Nagaland:
It is my pleasure to share about CLHTC program experiences in Nagaland. CLHTC program was started in 2012 September in Christian Institute of Health Sciences and Research Centre,Dimapur, Nagaland.We got the opportunity to trained 75 trainees so far and most of them are working in remote areas where there are no availablemedical facilities. The trainees came from various organization in North East India like NGOs,Indian Evangelical Mission (IEM),Indian Evangelical Team (IET),ECS Tuensang,School teachers, Sunday school teachers, Local Pastors, Wardens, Assam Baptist Convention, Youth With A Mission (YWAM), Nagaland Christian Revival Council,Angami Baptist Church council etc. There is joy in training people in this program as even with the little we input with the big picture in mind, the end result is satisfying as it multiplies –we can make a big difference with the little we do.
The impact in community after Training:
1. Trainees are able to conduct health education program in their own community.
The trainees conduct health education to community people with whatever they learned from the training program. They give health education based on their community needs like personal hygiene, healthy lifestyle etc. They use puppet and available vegetables and fruits to educate their community people. We have seen and experienced that they are transforming community in their own level, helping them to develop their own toilet with locally available resources materials with no cost where there was no toilet before specially in the Burma borderof Nagaland. They also helped in getting quality drinking water in their villageswith the support of well-wishers in the society.
2. They are able to manage simple diseases and provide first aid.
As and when people get sick in their community, they are able to provide first aidin small cut wounds, bleeding etc. They are able to assess dehydration level to those who are suffering from loose stool and prepare ORS for them. Most of the time, they see patients with skin problems and they consult us if they are not able to diagnose it themselves by sending picture of the skin problem(s) and we always get help from our Dermatologist in CIHSR to treat these patients.
3. They are able to conduct health screening program, identify the problem(s) and refer to hospital before it become too late.
The trainees checked blood pressure, urine sugar, tooth problem in children etc. in their community. As they conduct this kind of screening, they are able to identify the problems early and provide health education in a very simple manner, identify the severity of the problem(s) and refer them in time.
4. They are able to provide holistic care to the community.
According to WHO, “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
To be in Good health,a person needs to live in harmony with 4 areas
1. God (spiritual wellbeing)
2. Oneself (emotional and intellectual or mental wellbeing)
3. Others (social wellbeing)
4. Nature (physical wellbeing)
As a trained primary healthcare provider, they are able to provide holistic care to the community wherever they are.” Being a change agent” they are able to help many people in the community in every way.
We thank God for giving us this opportunity to train people in basic primary healthcare program which has helped many in the remote parts of Nagaland and also in the North Eastern region of our large country.
Mathew 24: 35,36- For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Little is Much When Placed in God's Hands”
