Source: Guyana Chronicle, 7th, April 2008

SOME 16 volunteers that successfully completed four weeks of intense training as Home Based Care (HBC) givers graduated at a simple ceremony on Friday, signalling the start of their appointment.

The programme is an initiative undertaken by the Guyana HIV/AIDS Reduction Project (GHARP) and will benefit persons living with HIV/AIDS by providing optimum care and attention in their homes.

The sixteen volunteers were selected from four Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO’s) namely; Lifeline Counselling, Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association, Love and Faith and the Network of Guyanese Living and Affected by HIV.

Among those present were Director of Lifeline Counselling Services, Mr. Derick Springer, Nutritionist from the Ministry of Health Annexe Ms. Yvette De Freitas and other representatives from the various NGO’s.

According to GHARP’s DR. Karen Gordon-Boyle, the national HBC programme is a richer one because of the sacrifice and commitment displayed by the participants to complete the training session.

She noted that while the realisation of the project is a major accomplishment for GHARP, it also serves to show that the four PEPFAR-funded Non-Governmental Organisations can come together to demonstrate their commonality with regards to the HBC undertaking.

Dr. Boyle alluded that the programme’s mandate is to improve the quality of life for persons living with HIV/AIDS and should be enforced immediately after a person is diagnosed with the virus.

This, she underscored is vital in enabling a person to overcome the impact of their diagnosis by serving to motivate them to accept their status and to avail themselves for the relevant treatment.

She further pointed out that as caregivers, the graduates must be able to effectively conduct a comprehensive assessment of their clients’ needs which include physical care, psychological, spiritual and social.

Meanwhile, the caregiver who will be working in collaboration with health care workers will provide patients with the option of receiving treatment at their homes rather than being exposed to less than dignified situations at some institutions.

Dr. Boyle also emphasised that while caregivers can be well qualified and regarded as good volunteer workers, they cannot be fully effective unless they are able to empathise with their clients.

As such, she posited that care givers must operate based on how they would want to be treated if they were in their client’s place, by transforming a possibly condemned life to one of complete satisfaction.

“You the graduands have been taught much but there is one lesson that texts, hand outs and tutors wouldn’t be able to teach you. It is a quality that in my mind differentiates a well trained volunteer from a great one. It is the ability to empathise with your client. To put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself how would I want to be treated, spoken to, touched or related to if it was me lying there or sitting on the other side of the table?

The willingness to put yourself in this uncomfortable position – even just for a moment, it would guide our every word, every intonation, body language and ultimately our actions.

I charge you therefore to challenge yourselves, to be not just well trained volunteers but great ones,” Dr. Boyle said.

She added that the HBC programme entails specific focus on HIV/AIDS-infected clients but can also serve to address the needs of rehabilitating patients such as those who are bedridden.

The HBC programme which began on March 3 and concluded on March 28 exposed the participants to theoretical and practical sessions on stigma, discrimination and HIV/AIDS, care for the caregiver, grief and bereavement, nutrition, pediatric HIV and opportunistic infections.