Overview

Who: Medical Assistants and Public Health nurses

When: Weekly or as per clinics context (average 10-15 houses/month)

Supporting Tools: Identifying At-risk Population Guide, Counselling Guide, Demonstration Guide. Annex 9

Home visits are an important part of delivering PHC services. Home Visits provide an opportunity to strengthen the engagement between community and PHC service delivery. It is during a home visit that you will sit alongside and experience firsthand what the family is experiencing. This will help you understand the challenges by families to keep themselves, their children and their environment healthy. Together you can find solutions that work for the family in their specific circumstances.

Home visits offer the opportunity to identify children, women, and family members who face unique challenges making them more vulnerable or placing them at higher risk to poor health and nutrition. It is these ‘at risk’ households that must be prioritized for home visits and it is these households that may require you to visit them more often.

1) To help a family become healthier or to find out how the family is following advice given. Some examples of areas for follow up include;

a. Attendance to PHC facility for clinical care and follow up treatment.

b. Antenatal and Postnatal care for Pregnant family members.

c. Defaulter NCD cases

d. Members with Disabilities – e.g. stroke patients, amputees

e. Status of Immunization for newborns and to give first dose after homebirths.

f. Progress on previously agreed actions such as building a latrine, or starting a vegetable garden, or keeping the area around the house clean.

2) To help a family learn a skill using their own resources, for example;

a. Mix oral rehydration solution

b. Prepare first foods for a breastfed baby using foods the family can afford

c. Safely storing foods

d. Washing hands

e. Supporting breastfeeding during the first days after mother and baby are discharged from the ward.

f. Hygiene Breastfeeding practices

g. Self-diabetic foot care – dressings

h. Self-insulin administration

3) To identify and provide extra support and services to children and women who are ‘at risk’ or vulnerable. At risk children or women require extra care in the home to stay healthy. They may also require referral to other services such as social work, education, police, or more advanced health care.