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"Compassionate health care in the service of Christ"
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Welcome to the CATHCA Website!Who we are: CATHCA is the Catholic Health Care Association of Southern Africa. Some of us are doctors, some nurses, some community health workers, or other health professionals, and many of us are lay people doing voluntary work as home based caregivers, administrators, bookkeepers, or looking after orphans or the elderly in homes and care centres across the country. Where we are: We work around the country in all nine Provinces of South Africa, and in Botswana and Swaziland, in 38 clinics, two hospitals, many old age homes, hospices, orphanages and many Diocesan and parish projects combating HIV/AIDS. See the button marked "Members" to the left. News from the National Office - Summer 2011
This
Christmas, may we appreciate the great gift that God has given us in Jesus, and
may our gratitude be deep and lasting. Our home-based care
learners in Loek manned a CATHCA
information stand at the Hope & Joy one-day conference in October, where we
sold our book, while Yvonne attended the Siyabhabha Trust board meeting on
November 15th in Finally, Loek ran a
morning workshop on minute-taking for all CATHCA staff in late November - CATHCA
staff take turns chairing and taking minutes for all their regular staff
meetings during the year, so this is a necessary skill. CATHCA did a presentation
to the Southern African Bishops’ Conference (SACBC)’s Admin Board on its
work in early November, where the future of Catholic health care came under
discussion. An abbreviated version is included here. CATHCA considers the
most significant challenges facing Catholic health care in the region to be: -
a smaller pool of
religious health professionals, with a resultant significant rise in running
costs -
a corresponding ongoing need to train
lay staff replacing religious in Catholic health organisations in the Catholic
ethos -
pressure from government to carry out
abortions and to provide emergency contraception and artificial birth control -
a shrinking international funding
base coupled with a reluctance by govenrment to pay caregivers stipends or
clinic salaries for independent health care organisations -
BUT a growing need for the
Christ-driven service provided by Catholic health care organisations by poor
communities in the light of the government’s failure to provide an adequate,
compassionate and efficient health system. What
might Catholic health care look like in future? Many of CATHCA’s
members work in rural communities, offering clinic and home-based care services,
and will be affected in some way or another by government’s decision to
implement a primary health care programme that now includes community health
care. But the government is currently unable to provide adequate health care in
every rural community. It will not be able to do so for some years, even with
considerable investment in community health, as its present health facilities
and staff require much attention first. This means that while one province has
stopped working with community NGOs, others may well include them in the work,
or to continue to fund them to carry it out. This may lead to a new and mutually
beneficial relationship for Catholic health facilities and projects with
government. ·
The provision of care, including health care,
to orphans and vulnerable children and youth, whose numbers are growing
significantly due to AIDS ·
Contracting with government to provide specific
services such as medical male circumcision, ante-natal care, provision of
anti-retroviral medication, down-referral clinics, palliative care, school
health services, running community wellness centers, etc. Send us your views on
this! to director@cathca.co.za CATHCA’s role is a
supportive and an energizing one, encouraging its members to think creatively
and realistically about their work. It plans to register as a training service
provider in home-based and community health care, to keep its members up to date
with all the changes in the health system being introduced in Orders for this book at
R60 + postage can be sent to Loek at admin@cathca.co.za;
she can also be contacted at 011 880 4022. The Lulu, Yvonne and Vida
headed for Hazyview in
Useful
links and articles 1.
Test,
treat and keep on treatment
–Health e-news, People
with HIV who are on antiretroviral medicine and have an undetectable level of
the virus are at virtually no risk of infecting their partners.This
ground-breaking new research makes it possible for Research
involved 1 763 couples in nine countries, including South Africa., where one was
HIV positive and the other HIV negative.All the HIV positive partners had CD4
counts of between 350 and 500, which means that they did not yet need ARVs.The
couples were randomly divided into two groups. In the first group, the HIV
positive partners were put onto ARVs immediately. In the second group, ARVs were
delayed until the partners with HIV reached a CD4 count of 250 or they developed
an AIDS-related illness. There
was a 96% reduction in transmission in the early treatment group. “I would say
that people who are on successful ARV treatment are 100 percent safe and will
not transmit the virus,” says Dr Francois Venter. The
implications for 2.
New
National Strategic Plan on HIV, STIs and TB 2012 – 2016 This
plan has been released and is available on the SANAC website at http://www.sanac.org.za/
. It has 4 broad goals 1.
Reduce new HIV infections by at least 50% using combination prevention
approaches; 2.
Initiate at least 80% of eligible patients on antiretroviral treatment (ART),
with 70% alive and
on
treatment five years after initiation; 3.
Reduce the number of new TB infections as well as deaths from TB by 50%; 4.
Ensure an enabling and accessible legal framework that protects and promotes
human rights in
order to support implementation of the NSP; and 5.
Reduce self-reported stigma related to HIV and TB by at least 50%. 1.
Address social and structural barriers to HIV, STI and TB prevention, care and
impact; 2.
Prevent new HIV, STI and TB infections; 3.
Sustain health and wellness; and 4.
Increase protection of human rights and improve access to justice.
5.
HIV:
More Pregnant Mothers Infected - SANGONET
November 20th 2011
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says that the HIV-prevalence among pregnant women in the country has increased from 29.4 to 30.2 percent, during the release of the National Antenatal Sentinel HIV and Syphilis Prevalence survey. To read the article titled, “More pregnant women infected with Aids virus,” click here. -------------------------------------------------------- CATHCA produces a regular e-mail newsletter called e-NEWS,
with information about current CATHCA activities, new developments in the health
field, courses and conferences, and news about health legislation. If you
wish to subscribe, fill in your details and click on the button marked
"Subscribe" below: More information Click on a button on the left for more information about CATHCA, its history, membership, addresses of clinics and other institutions, structure, parish nursing programme, staff members, work with HIV/AIDS, and medicines. Contact details: CATHCA, P O Box 52015, Saxonwold, 2132 St. Vincent School for the Deaf, 158 Oxford Road, Melrose, Johannesburg Telephone: +27 11 880 4022 Fax: +27 11 880 4084 E-mail : info@cathca.co.za
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