Hello,
Today's assignment is to simply look at the Family AIDS Care and Education Services (FACES) website here and answer the following question:
How does this model of care create engagement not only with patients' clinical needs but also their psycho-social needs and the needs of the community? Why might such an approach be useful or even necessary for treating a disease such as HIV/AIDS?
Thanks for your hard work!
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I would be interested to know how many other organizations in Southern Africa are run the way that FACES is run. I suspect that FACES is one of a few organizations who check up on patients as carefully as they do, not only to see that they are taking their medicine correctly, but that they are living in a way that makes taking the medicine actually worth it. Because HIV/AIDS is a virus that lowers the immune system, it is essential that patients get the right nutrition, especially when taking medicine.
ReplyDeleteFACES visits each patient at home, if they miss an appointment. This is great- I don't want to put this down, as I'm sure it's helping many many families. But all the same I wonder...how long can this go on? As FACES continues to grow and distributes to more people, will they be able to check up individually on each patient? They may need to think of alternatives soon,as the organization expands. However, if they can continue to afford it, the home-visits seem to help a lot. After all, home-visits involve hiring more people which is always a plus!
The organization is making a point of staying community-based (only one foreigner in the slide show of workers), and also hiring what Paul Farmer refers to as "accompagnateurs", people hired to distribute drugs and check up on patients, without needing a doctor's degree to do so.
FACES also plans community events like a children group and Olivia even mentioned cooking classes to learn how to cook nutritious meals!
Through events/activities like this, FACES is establishing it's reputation within the community. It is letting people know that they can get help if they need it, and working towards diminishing the stigma attached to the HIV/AIDS virus.
Too often, HIV treatment facilities are designed to treat only the HIV particles building up in a patient’s blood. This is an undeniably important faucet of patient care, but should not stand by itself.
ReplyDeleteFACES, whose goal is to “advance comprehensive and compassionate HIV services”, understands that HIV diagnoses and treatment distribution must be accompanied by other services in order to not only heal the patient but also prevent the spread of the disease. FACES offers prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of opportunistic infections and ARV drugs to patients, but what (I assume) sets them apart from similar clinics is their commitment to support services. They provide a counseling program that prepares patients and their families for ARV treatment and offers nutritional and psychosocial counseling. FACES also coordinates support groups and is currently starting a “kids club” for HIV positive children. In addition, the organization trains peer education volunteers to offer information and counseling and check up on patients who have missed appointments.
All this demonstrates FACES’s understanding that HIV is not just a disease that attacks the immune system. An HIV diagnosis carries a social stigma that must be addressed, both for the patient’s health and for the strength and health of the community. To be effective and efficient, an HIV clinic should take into consideration the reasons why patients don’t take their drugs, seek medical attention, or eat properly.
The FACES model of care is seemingly ideal. It approaches HIV/AIDS treatment from a comprehensive perspective. It infiltrates the communities and effectively addresses problems which frequently inhibit HIV treatment.
ReplyDeleteFACES excels in treating whole family units infected with HIV. Due to its aggressive approach to the problem, encouraging screening, addressing disclosure issues, etc., FACES is helping the community to both cure and prevent HIV. It focuses on both education about HIV/AIDS and support for families dealing with HIV/AIDS.
FACES is a very effective model for HIV/AIDS programs because it addresses both the clinical factors and the social factors of a patients care. It works to heal entire communities dealing with HIV/AIDS by addressing the individuals as well as providing education about HIV/AIDS to help the community overcome HIV/AIDS as a problem.
First off, I want to start by saying from my knowledge; there are not many other programs which take its patients care into actual consideration. Most programs diagnose them, and explain how the complicated process of the medication goes, and then leaves them to the confinement of their homes. FACES on the other hand without a doubt, completes the satisfaction that the patients need. More or less, if the patients miss an appointment the doctors, nurses, or helpers know something must be wrong or at least take that precaution. FACES immediately sends a helper out to the hut/ grounds which the patients are living on, and make sure they are taking their medications correctly, and many other things including; Counseling, Support Groups, Peer Educator Network, solely women’s support groups, and nutritional information on cooking healthy and nutritional foods for their health. With all of this they not only get the treatment they deserve but they get that and much more. Even with just the effects of consoling, lives can be turned upside down by just providing someone to talk to.
ReplyDeleteThis process seems to add to the already extensive program, and allows the patient to have much more than just medication to deal with this life-threatening disease. FACES gives them people to talk to, those of whom are trained professionals, they give them tips on healthy foods to keep their immune system stabilized (or as well as it can be). FACES realizes that this virus takes away a lot from their lives and the need others support to get through and help cope with this virus that wont fade away in the near future.
Another thing I realized when looking through the website is that FACES tries to have a sense of community throughout the whole process. Especially to the woman, for FACES creates a group just woman to go and express their feelings for what troubles they may be facing at the time. The group support group also is also quite beneficial to the process for if the patients never learn to cope with the underlying factor that they have HIV/AIDS, and then mentally they will never get better from it. As these community gatherings are created it gives a sense of home to them, not as if they don’t already have it, though knowing they are not alone. So for the underlying question, yes, I think it is completely necessary to have organized home visits and everything else that FACES provides for it helps the individual with the virus greatly and helps them grow even knowing that inevitably someday soon without the help of a vaccine, they will die.
All in all, the activities that FACES produces provide a clear message of their goals and aspirations to create a healthy environment for those whom have unhealthy bodies. Olivia used the word Stigma today and I feel as though FACES use their power to try to diminish the use of this, and by creating the community feel, I feel as though it helps the individuals overcome the fear in which they have of living with this virus.
FACES is a smoothly run operation, and it is so because it is community involved and intimate. They are very strong in insisting that the people with HIV/AIDS that they are aiding be addressed as clients not patients. This is very important because it physiologically helps the manner in which they fight the disease. While reading the FACES TALK december newsletter, I noticed how tightly knit this organization is. This is a great and admirable approach for dealing with the challenge that faces us worldwide.
ReplyDeleteThe individual care, and the followup of the initial help is very organized and efficient. Not only does their regime of treatment help the disease, it lets the clients live their life as well. Also from the newsletter, I saw that there was a FACES youth soccer team. With this and the other activities that they are providing, they are combining community building and distraction from harsh clinical treatment.
This program is an excellent paragon for other organizations that are fighting HIV/AIDS or other infectious diseases because it is extremely personal. The approach of FACES is to be very reassuring to their clients, which is a big attraction, especially to younger or less educated people who are infected with HIV/AIDS.
One of the stark differences between FACES and some other organizations is their followup action. The fact that they will send someone regular home visits because of psycho-social needs, or if they have missed a treatment, is incredible. It portrays the sense of community within FACES that is then projected to the general public, and influences many people.
Overall, FACES is the ideal model for an orgaization that treats these diseases, and hopefully over time it will expand to help a larger quantity of people.
Elana
HIV/AIDS is a unique illness because for the most part, people are waiting long periods of time for the systems to kick in, yet death is inevitable. This puts an immense burden on one’s psyche, and this aspect of HIV/AIDS needs as much attention if not more than the medical aspects of the disease. FACES is taking an approach that brings “clients” mental health into the equation of having a more fulfilling and longer life with HIV. Through community outreach, nutrition programs, a kids club, and couples support group, FACES is helping to make living with HIV a more comfortable and wholesome existence. Since HIV/AIDS cannot be cured, the whole point of medical attention is to keep the patients having a more positive life. ARV’s can be a huge factor in making one feel happier and healthier, and FACES is administering those as well as many other organizations. Where FACES excels is in its holistic approach to making the duration of patient’s lives a more stigma free and supported one.
ReplyDeleteHow does this model of care create engagement not only with patients' clinical needs but also their psycho-social needs and the needs of the community?
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that I believe that helps the patients treated with help from the FACES organization is that when patients miss an appointment, someone goes to their house and makes sure that they are taking their medicine, and if they still have the means to get to their appointments.
The majority of the permanent FACES workers are from the community or have been living there for a long time. They are strong fixtures in the community, and will stay that way by uniting the HIV+, and the HIV- population in the town.
Why might such an approach be useful or even necessary for treating a disease such as HIV/AIDS?
The approach that FACES uses utilizes the community, and but it is that way, because they know everyone there because they are fixtures in the community. Some other international organizations just send their workers in, and then don't really pay attention to the needs of that specific community. It's so necessary because it is only within the patient's control to take the medication and to be treated.
FACES is a great organization that considers the lifestyle of their patients and how they can help change their life (by helping them recover from the symptoms of being HIV+).
Olivia, I really admire you for doing this amazing work for FACES. Most people want to help a charity or non-profit, but they don't have the audacity to actually go out and do it, but you did.
Madeline Allen
How does this model of care create engagement not only with patients' clinical needs but also their psycho-social needs and the needs of the community?
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that I believe that helps the patients treated with help from the FACES organization is that when patients miss an appointment, someone goes to their house and makes sure that they are taking their medicine, and if they still have the means to get to their appointments.
The majority of the permanent FACES workers are from the community or have been living there for a long time. They are strong fixtures in the community, and will stay that way by uniting the HIV+, and the HIV- population in the town.
Why might such an approach be useful or even necessary for treating a disease such as HIV/AIDS?
The approach that FACES uses utilizes the community, and but it is that way, because they know everyone there because they are fixtures in the community. Some other international organizations just send their workers in, and then don't really pay attention to the needs of that specific community. It's so necessary because it is only within the patient's control to take the medication and to be treated.
FACES is a great organization that considers the lifestyle of their patients and how they can help change their life (by helping them recover from the symptoms of being HIV+).
Olivia, I really admire you for doing this amazing work for FACES. Most people want to help a charity or non-profit, but they don't have the audacity to actually go out and do it, but you did.
Madeline Allen
HIV/AIDS is an incredibly burdensome and emotionally trying illness to bear. Unlike many other foreign based organizations or government funded facilities where resources are kept to being spent on medications alone, FACES addresses the emotional and community facets of supporting an HIV-positive population.
ReplyDeleteUsing native doctors and workers is key to the burgeoning success of FACES in integrating HIV/AIDS care into acceptable society. To me, this is the biggest difference between FACES and other efforts. Beyond offering employment to a growing group people, which is significant, the workers can directly confront social stigmas applied to the virus and confront them head on.
FACES uses community activities to make HIV care more accepted, through kids clubs and cooking workshops and various other means of involving the greater community. These workshops and gatherings lessen the separation between those with HIV and those without and decrease the sense of alienation and loneliness that those with HIV often face. If FACES can be a solid and positive presence in society, people are going to be more willing to both accept those who seek treatment and in turn seek treatment themselves if they need it.
Realizing that HIV is more than a strictly biological sickness, FACES provides for the psyche of the HIV patient as well as the medicine distribution aspect. With couples or individual counseling and support groups, the patient is more fully taken care of.
Home visits are routine when a patient misses an appointment; medication is useless if individuals are sloppy with compliance or if they have an inadequately nutritious diet, and FACES addresses this as well.
There are many factors that contribute to the long and productive life of any person diagnosed with HIV/AIDS beyond simple access to medication. Affordable treatment is a huge component which FACES identifies first and foremost, but social roadblocks are what make this virus most difficult to overcome. FACES takes into account the emotional strain a person suffers along with the physical attributes of HIV, and diminishes those communal stigmas and lack of acceptance with a native-run staff.
Faces is a great program because they make sure that there patients are taken care of even when they are not visiting the doctors office. When a patient misses an appoint FACES will go and check up on them. This is a great thing to do because they might be really sick oneday and most doctors would not notice if there patient did not come. FACES reminds me of my mom because she is always there for me.
ReplyDeleteFACES is good for the community because no one is forgotten. They make sure that everyone is doing well and when they are not they go to check up on them. They also supply communities with trained professionals that are there because they want to be and not because they have to be.
FACES seems like the most effective program when it comes to HIV/AIDS because they don’t just give you drugs and send you packing. They look after you and your children. It also works well because FACES creates a new community for people with HIV/AIDS. It’s a place where they don’t have to be scared and can trust everyone there.