Health

Healthcare

“He who has health has hope; and he who has hope has everything” – Arabic proverb

India has made rapid strides in the health sector since independence. However, various eye opening data from NFHS clearly indicate that access to healthcare still remains a challenge.

While the health statistics of rural India continue to be poor, the health status and access to health for the poor in urban slum dwellers has surfaced to be equally deplorable and have less than 4% of government primary healthcare facilities.

Urban slum dwellers suffer from adverse health conditions owing to mainly two reasons –first the lack of education and thus lack of awareness; and second the unwillingness to lose a day’s wage in order to reach the nearest medical facility. Healthcare for underprivileged, which is a desperate need, thus remains unaddressed.

The need of the hour is thus a two pronged approach – first to bring quality healthcare services to doorsteps of the needy and second to promote healthcare awareness and contemporary healthcareseeking behavior among the underprivileged.

In such a scenario a mobile healthcare services delivery system is the most practical mechanism. And in subscription to this view, Smile Foundation has initiated the Smile on Wheels programme. This is a unique mobile hospital programme that seeks to address problems of mobility, accessibility and availability of primary healthcare with a special focus on children and women, in urban slums and remote rural areas.

Preventing Death and Disease Through Low-Cost Community Intervention

Across poor villages and in urban settlements, preventable illnesses and disability are a major cause of suffering, a drain on family finances, and a barrier to building a more secure life. When these are avoided, families can focus on other pursuits such as education and income generation. In this way, TEARS programs that focus on health are the stepping stone to community wellbeing.

TEARS approach to improving health is to support programs that enable community members to grow in their awareness of what causes ill health, to implement affordable ways to prevent illness, and to connect people in with other services that are available - such as clinics or hospitals. The focus of these programs is locally-determined, but commonly focuses on the health of pregnant mothers and infants, connecting children with immunisation programs, awareness around preventing transmittable diseases, and environmental sanitation such as clean dishes and rubbish removal. The effects on families can be felt almost immediately, as mothers enjoy fewer instances of diarrhoea in their households, and can approach childbirth with greater confidence in a healthy outcome for themselves and their babies.

Health awareness extends into social and economic issues, as these also lead to illness and prevent wellbeing. For people with disability and with mental illnesses, social acceptance and support is vital to enabling them to achieve to their full potential. And for women experiencing violence, or for refugees fleeing political instability, the effects of trauma require both counselling and livelihoods opportunities to regain health. The community-based nature of TEARS work enables this to happen within the context of existing social networks, building up the community itself to provide better support for vulnerable people.