Team PATA

Clinic Stories

PATA-affiliated Clinics are invited to share what is happening in their clinic with other clinics within the PATA network. These stories are then published electronically in the PATA newsletter.

Nsambya Home Care (Uganda) focuses on developing adolescent care in their clinic

Nsambya Home Care (NHC) from Kampala joined the PATA network in 2010. The treatment team that attended the 2010 PATA Forum have shared some of their progress since the forum.

The team’s first goal was to produce a monthly newsletter about their experiences in dealing with adolescents. The first newsletter was printed in March 2011.

Performance review meetings were conducted and subsequently a representative group of staff and adolescents has been formed to initiate improvements in services to adolescents living with HIV.

Eight focus groups with adolescents were held to guide the creation of an adolescent transition process manual.

The team also held a meeting to share information from the PATA forum with other health care workers in the clinic.

In addition the clinic has been successful in:

• Strengthening the existing five Peer Support Groups and initiating another group in a satellite clinic
• Each group has a constitution, objectives and details of meeting minutes
• Seeking donations for recreational materials for children
• Making two presentations at the Uganda Paediatric Association conference
• Providing IEC materials in the clinic e.g. ART, SRH services, TB, motivation messages and otherreading materials from Straight Talk Foundation and Young Positives

Kiwoko (Uganda) reviews their PMTCT protocol and creates teen groups

The team at Kiwoko Hospital in Uganda serve a rural population and provides a range of treatment and care services and as well as a prevention and education programmes.

Before the PATA East African Forum the team identified teen pregnancy, adherence, stigma and sudden changes in caretakers as major challenges. In the 6 months following the forum the team have:

• Shared information with the hospital
• Implemented adherence educational sessions for caretakers
• Reviewed their PMTCT protocol
• Split their adolescent groups so that appropriate information is shared with each group
• Created new age cohorts groups
• Put forward a proposal for basic needs funding for severely disadvantaged clients

The team also plans to develop their disclosure protocol and start a teen mothers’ club. Kiwoko Hospital will be hosting small local forum to involved community groups and local clinics in order to develop an integrated response to working with caregivers.

Vihiga District Hospital (Kenya) treatment team extends psychosocial support

The Vihiga District Hospital team attended a PATA Forum for the first time in 2010. They recently sent PATA their three month report. “The seemingly small things that we have overlooked over the years,” they wrote, “are in fact extremely valuable in the overall results achieved in the care and treatment of our clients.”

The goals undertaken by the team for the first three months following the 2010 East African Regional Forum were:

1. To attach each child to the nearest psychosocial support group or social worker
2. To strengthen psychosocial support groups through regular meetings
3. To train all contact health workers on disclosure
4. To establish an Expert Patient programme

Of the 124 children attending the Vihiga clinic, only nine are yet to be attached to a psychosocial support group, but they will be allocated to one of the three groups in the next few weeks. The team has approached the District Health Management Team and the District Nurse to plan and budget so that more than 1000 children attending the hospital’s 15 satellite clinics in the district will be attached to a support group. “Every single child must belong to and benefit from a psychosocial support group,” the team writes. The team plans to increase the number of support groups to between 20 and 25, as the number of children increases.

Due to logistical and financial constraints, the clinic has held only one out of the three planned meetings aimed at strengthening the psychosocial support groups. They have secured the hospital administration’s support and more meetings are planned.

There are five resident clinicians in the comprehensive care clinic. The team plans to train more and to incorporate disclosure training with on-site training through the District Public Health Nurse's facility visits. A ‘train the trainer’ model will be used so that one health worker per satellite site will train colleagues at each particular site.

The clinic has established an Expert Patient type programme with two Expert Patients currently volunteering at the District Hospital clinic. The Expert Patients care for the children during the paediatric day clinic and are central to the collection and management of data. They are investigating ways of expanding the programme and making it more sustainable.

Adolescent Disclosure at the Mpilo Ol Clinic

The Mpilo Ol Clinic in Zimbabwe has made significant progress on many of their team goals set at the 2009 Forum. In reference to their goal of ascertaining whether adolescents have been disclosed to, the clinic team writes that "50 adolescents who had not been disclosed to were identified and ultimately disclosure was done."

G25 Clinic Improves Clinic Flow

The G25 Clinic at Groote Schuur Hospital in South Africa reports that Expert Patients have "limited unnecessary movement in the clinic, they take hospital folders from the clinic to the pharmacy, take part in a stimulating playgroup and free up the caregivers in the clinic to attend to their own individual appointments." All of these outcomes have improved the atmosphere of the clinic and the experience of patients.

Keiskamma makes the music happen

There is always something new out of Hamburg, the small rural town in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The Keiskamma Trust, based in the town and working closely with the Hamburg clinic, is probably best known for its Art Project which has been responsible for creating incredible, enormous tapestries over the past few years. Read more

A Zimbabwean story - Zvandiri

The book Our Story was written by members of the Zvandiri Support Group from Harare, Zimbabwe. This HIV/AIDS support group consists of children and adolescents aged 8 to 18 years. As everyone in the support group is HIV positive, they chose the Shona name of "Zvandiri" for themselves, which means "as I am". They cannot change who they are, but must live with HIV and accept it, as should others. Read more

Paarl Clinic's Emporium of Care, South Africa

The Paarl Clinic, based at the TC Newman Hospital in Paarl near Cape Town opened their brand new Emporium of Care in December 2007. Read more

CHU de Yopougon Clinic in Abidjan, Côte D'Ivoire

Nguetta Paulette of the CHU de Yopougon clinic in Abidjan, Côte D'Ivoire, looks back on 2007 and the impact the previous PATA conference had on their team in preparing for PATA 2007. This report was translated by Virgile Mahoro. Read more

Tisungane Clinic, Malawi (March 2008)

Tisungane clinic's expert patient programme has been operating since 2007. They have now requested funding from PATA for expert patients to fill the roles of translator, ARV clerk assistants and a nursing assistant/ adherence counsellor. As Tisungane clinic has already involved and trained community members to work within their clinic, PATA can learn from their experience to date. Read more