This presentation outlines ACDEP's mobile component project to promote adolescent sexual and reproductive health in Northern Ghana. The project uses mobile phones to provide health information to target groups like peer educators and mothers. It was kickstarted through workshops. Experiences include establishing a text messaging system with health messages. Plans for 2013 include expanding the project to more clinics, using both SMS and voice messages, and providing phones to target group leaders. The overall goal is to improve access to sexual health information and services for adolescents.
This presentation was conceptualised and made by me as a part of my Summer training project work. The project was a real time activity carried out by the Public Health division of ASTRON Hospital & healthcare Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
This presentation was conceptualised and made by me as a part of my Summer training project work. The project was a real time activity carried out by the Public Health division of ASTRON Hospital & healthcare Consultants Pvt. Ltd.
Ensuring mothers are provided appropriate antenatal and delivery care, and offering the proper information and services for mothers to time and space their pregnancies are essential to building healthy families. World Vision will describe their work with religious leaders in Garba Tulla, Kenya to help pregnant moms thrive during their childbearing years.
We want to exploit modern IT communication over mobile smart devices & PCs to:
1. Enable simple early remote diagnostics
2. Collect symptomatic pathology data from devices
3. Match people with appropriate mental healthcare service facilities
4. Empower digital training/education platform to mental practitioner/ traditional health professionals
5. Manage outpatient treatment schedule according to individual treatment needs
6. Access to remote classical medical health screening diagnosis
7. Provide therapeutic group counseling sessions
8. Make individual therapy appointments
9. Improve care facility administrative management
HIV and AIDS still remains the greatest public health challenge globally (Strauss and Thomas, 2008).
It is undoubtedly a major cause of premature deaths in many parts of the world with the poorest regions being the most affected.
The lack of an imminent cure or vaccine means that more deaths and large disease burden are inevitable (WHO, 2001).
By the end of 2010, approximately 34 million people globally were living with HIV infection.
In the same year, nearly 2.7 million new infections including slightly over 300,000 among children and 1.8 million AIDS related deaths occurred (UNAIDS, 2010).
Ensuring mothers are provided appropriate antenatal and delivery care, and offering the proper information and services for mothers to time and space their pregnancies are essential to building healthy families. World Vision will describe their work with religious leaders in Garba Tulla, Kenya to help pregnant moms thrive during their childbearing years.
We want to exploit modern IT communication over mobile smart devices & PCs to:
1. Enable simple early remote diagnostics
2. Collect symptomatic pathology data from devices
3. Match people with appropriate mental healthcare service facilities
4. Empower digital training/education platform to mental practitioner/ traditional health professionals
5. Manage outpatient treatment schedule according to individual treatment needs
6. Access to remote classical medical health screening diagnosis
7. Provide therapeutic group counseling sessions
8. Make individual therapy appointments
9. Improve care facility administrative management
HIV and AIDS still remains the greatest public health challenge globally (Strauss and Thomas, 2008).
It is undoubtedly a major cause of premature deaths in many parts of the world with the poorest regions being the most affected.
The lack of an imminent cure or vaccine means that more deaths and large disease burden are inevitable (WHO, 2001).
By the end of 2010, approximately 34 million people globally were living with HIV infection.
In the same year, nearly 2.7 million new infections including slightly over 300,000 among children and 1.8 million AIDS related deaths occurred (UNAIDS, 2010).
Youth health integrating mHealth is an amazing approach for youth who are interested in working in mhealth program, it gives youth a chance to promote and improve their skills, networking and access to information on health and related issues through mobile phone which provides reliable, safe and confidential information
David deakin on Tearfund and Mobile Technologies for Social ChangeEnvisage RTI
David Deakin from Tearfund, a long established International Development Agency, talks about the role of technology in supporting HIV programmes and patients in Africa
The Effectiveness of HIV/Aids Education in Promoting Interventions for A Supp...QUESTJOURNAL
ABSTRACT: HIV/AIDS education is supposed to not only be a medium of creating awareness but also most importantly promote practices and skills to enable HIV prevention among youth in schools. This article reports on a study whose purpose was to assess the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS education in promoting interventions for a supportive environment in secondary schools. Specifically, the study sought to find out the extent to which interventions for a supportive environment for HIV/AIDS prevention were emphasized to youth; and explore the factors that influenced the promotion of the interventions. The study focused on youth involvement, parental involvement and HIV/AIDS prevention friendly school policies. The findings of the study established that the potential of the youth in enabling HIV/AIDS prevention among their fellow peers was not fully exploited. Parental involvement was low especially among the fathers. Parents rarely engaged in discussions on topics that dealt with sexuality. HIV/AIDS prevention friendly policies were ineffectively promoted in schools. Factors that influenced the promotion of the interventions were explored.
Comprehensive Sexuality Education is a curriculum-based process of teaching & learning about the cognitive, emotional, physical & social aspects of sexuality.
it is coming under the National ruler health mission. every year various guidelines are published by CENTRAL GOVERNMENT to improve the condition of children.
The COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa has had a devastating impact on the social and economic landscape in South Africa, with particular challenges faced by women during pregnancy and the postnatal period.
While much of our usual and planned work for the year had to be paused, cancelled or substantially changed, we rallied to respond to the pandemic in several ways.
Read more about our COVID response and other activities in this Annual Report.
2. Presentation Outline
Brief Background to the Project – Mobile Component
Rationale
Objectives
Geographical area & Target groups
Using mobile telephony strategically to promote adolescent sexual &
reproductive health.
Kick-starting the project:
Project inception & implementation workshops organised.
Change management workshop organised.
Our experiences with mobile telephony.
Plans for 2013
3. Rationale for Introducing the Mobile Component for ADRH
Young men and women are a vulnerable group, as social, economic and cultural situations
may lead them to early sexual activity and high risk.
Young people need, want and have a right to sexual and reproductive health information &
services.
Ignoring their sexuality will not make their problems go away. It only makes them worse.
Therefore, recognising the need for adolescents sexual and reproductive health information
and services, ACDEP introduced the mobile component in its ADRH project as an innovative
approach to help address adolescent sexual and reproductive health issues, including:
Unwanted pregnancies,
Unsafe abortion
STDs, including HIV/AIDS, through the promotion of responsible and healthy
reproductive and sexual behaviour, including voluntary abstinence, and the provision of
appropriate services and counselling in rural communities.
4. Key Concerns
Sexually active adolescents are at risk of getting and
passing on STDs including HIV/AIDS.
Increasing rates of maternal mortality among adolescents.
Increasing prevalence of unsafe abortion.
Early child bearing impedes the educational, economic
and social status of women.
5. Factors Responsible:
1. Limited access to Information Health Services
Access to information is a right of all young persons. But young people in rural communities
in Northern Ghana do not have access to proper information on sexual and reproductive
health.
Young people get information from their friends, which are least reliable. There are several
misperceptions like “HIV virus will spread by touching the person who is infected by HIV”, “a
girl cannot become pregnant the first time she has sexual intercourse”.
As a result, adolescents are susceptible to sexual violence and exploitation, infection of
HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections, and unplanned pregnancies.
Apart form these, the cultural and traditional practises remain as barriers for the young
people to practise their sexual and reproductive health rights.
Parents are reluctant to give information to their children because discussing these health
issues are either embarrassing to them or they think these information would encourage
them to experiment with sex.
6. 2. Limited Access to Reproductive Health Services
Increasing prevalence of unsafe abortion, maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy
poses a serious health concern for adolescents. This shows the need for greater access to
reproductive health care services.
The community and the health care providers do not always provide adolescents with proper
care.
Their needs are discouraged or ignored. Youth-friendly health care approaches are completely
lacking adding on to the problems of the adolescents .
Adolescents do not approach the health care providers because their right to privacy,
confidentiality and respect is sometimes not considered. They are often made to feel guilty.
Geographical, accessibility also plays a major role. The health centres are not always at an
accessible distance. It is very difficult for the adolescents to travel to the health centres.
Adolescents may not have enough money to pay fees for their health care so they may be
reluctant to go to the health centres.
7. Objectives
To facilitate the development and implementation of an
integrated adolescent health programme for a broader
primary health care at community level.
To enhance and integrate ICT strategies and tools as a
development approach in PHC services.
8. Geographical Area & Target Groups
The current geographical scope of the project includes:
Walewale in the West Mamprusi District of the Northern Region;
Langbensi and Nalerigu in the East Mamprusi District of the
Northern Region;
Salaga and Loloto in the East Gonja District and Kpandai District
respectively in the Northern Region,
Garu in the Garu-Tempane District of the Upper East Region.
The target groups are adolescents and their coordinators
9. Using Mobile Telephony Strategically to Promote Adolescent
Sexual & Reproductive Health:
Kick-starting the Project
Held planning meetings to define the role of mobile
telephony in the project.
Organised project inception & implementation workshops
for end-users.
Developed content for dissemination to target groups.
Organised change management workshops for managers
& other stakeholders of the project.
10. Using Mobile Telephony Strategically to Promote Adolescent Sexual &
Reproductive Health: Our Experiences
In collaboration with Text-to-Change, text messaging system has been established
to share information with PEs, TBAs, TMPs, PLWHAs and mothers: The health
messages / information produced include:
Maternal health and child welfare – pregnancy related issues, nutrition and
antenatal / postnatal care.
Pregnancy & danger signs.
Preventive health issues and how to manage such conditions should they occur.
Adolescent sexual and reproductive health rights.
Sexually transmitted infections.
Teenage pregnancy – dangers/effects/prevention.
Community water and sanitation.
Personal hygiene.
General best practices in health.
For now messages are sent to about 150 peer educators and their
coordinators through text messages at 12:00 hrs on every Monday.
11. Our Experiences with Mobile Telephony….
The health information to the target groups was
planned to be in the form of :
Quiz questions,
Awareness messages,
Reminders,
Keyword feedback options,
Reproductive health encyclopedia. For example,
sending the key word ''M4RH'' to 1902 as an sms
message will give you a mobile reproductive health
encyclopedia via sms.
12. Our Experiences with Mobile Telephony….
Messages received are discussed at monthly meetings.
The discussions are moderated by coordinators / peer
educators of the youth clubs to ensure that they stay
focus.
Those who seek further information go to the ICT
centres.
13. Plans for 2013
ACDEP will upscale the project from 5 clinics to 10 in 2013.
Will set up and maintain mobile management platforms and solutions (both SMS
& voice) appropriate for rural circumstances for our mobile clinics and target
groups (Adolescents, TBAs, TMPs, Mothers Health workers).
Mobile telephony will also be used to improve communication lines between the
different actors in the project which will be built around a better link between
pregnant women, communities, TBAs’, midwives / nurses and health facilities.
Will introduce mobile voice messaging component to strengthen referral and
communication to improve reduction in delays after recognising danger signs.
Will deploy the system at the ACDEP head office in Tamale and manage it locally.
Will provide mobile phones to leaders of the target groups.