From Colleague in East Asia:
Healing the Sick with Words
A typical scene in the doctor's office in [Country]:
Doctor: (Not looking at patient) What's wrong?
Patient: I'm coughing.
Doctor: (Still not looking at patient, writing something) Give this prescription to the nurse. Pay outside.
Patient: (Nods head and leaves the room without saying anything.)
Doctor-patient communication of this kind is barely good enough for minor ailments, but definitely spells disaster when treating HIV patients. HIV can be successfully controlled, but the catch is that the patient needs near perfect compliance with HIV drugs for life; anything less will result in treatment failure. Since 2007, the HIV center in ZJ [prefecture] has been treating HIV patients, but it consistently had the lowest treatment success rate in the whole of [Country] year after year. One major reason was the way those doctors and nurses communicated with their patients. Like the example above, there was very little talking, listening, and mutual understanding.
Then 2 years ago, [Agency] entered into a partnership with the ZJ HIV center. [Agency] brought in long-term doctors and short-term medical teams to aid the local staff. We taught them more in depth about HIV treatment and also started treatment support groups for the patients. But most importantly, we hired and trained (in conjunction with another [Country] NGO called [Country] AIDS Care) 4 local [Minority People Group] nurses to be HIV counselors at the HIV Center to improve doctor-patient communication.
These 4 HIV counselors take the time to explain what HIV is and why the HIV drugs are important. They sit face to face with patients, asking if they have any side effects or trouble taking the pills. The counselors speak in their local dialect and give the patients and their families a chance to talk. Their efforts have revolutionized the way the HIV Center takes care of patients. The patients feel the difference and so do we. The HIV Center's treatment success rate is finally on the climb and improving!
Please pray alongside of us for our 4 counselors (their names are: WG, SL, AX, and JH) as they take care of the most needy of their own people. Pray that God would continue to give them compassion and wisdom in their work so they can be a blessing to the HIV patients. Pray also that we can get to know them more and have opportunities to share with them the Great Physician.
Picture #1: SL (L) counseling a grandfather taking care of his 4 year old orphaned granddaughter who has HIV.
Picture #2: WG (L) and SL (R) discussing a case.
Healing the Sick with Words
A typical scene in the doctor's office in [Country]:
Doctor: (Not looking at patient) What's wrong?
Patient: I'm coughing.
Doctor: (Still not looking at patient, writing something) Give this prescription to the nurse. Pay outside.
Patient: (Nods head and leaves the room without saying anything.)
Doctor-patient communication of this kind is barely good enough for minor ailments, but definitely spells disaster when treating HIV patients. HIV can be successfully controlled, but the catch is that the patient needs near perfect compliance with HIV drugs for life; anything less will result in treatment failure. Since 2007, the HIV center in ZJ [prefecture] has been treating HIV patients, but it consistently had the lowest treatment success rate in the whole of [Country] year after year. One major reason was the way those doctors and nurses communicated with their patients. Like the example above, there was very little talking, listening, and mutual understanding.
Then 2 years ago, [Agency] entered into a partnership with the ZJ HIV center. [Agency] brought in long-term doctors and short-term medical teams to aid the local staff. We taught them more in depth about HIV treatment and also started treatment support groups for the patients. But most importantly, we hired and trained (in conjunction with another [Country] NGO called [Country] AIDS Care) 4 local [Minority People Group] nurses to be HIV counselors at the HIV Center to improve doctor-patient communication.
These 4 HIV counselors take the time to explain what HIV is and why the HIV drugs are important. They sit face to face with patients, asking if they have any side effects or trouble taking the pills. The counselors speak in their local dialect and give the patients and their families a chance to talk. Their efforts have revolutionized the way the HIV Center takes care of patients. The patients feel the difference and so do we. The HIV Center's treatment success rate is finally on the climb and improving!
Please pray alongside of us for our 4 counselors (their names are: WG, SL, AX, and JH) as they take care of the most needy of their own people. Pray that God would continue to give them compassion and wisdom in their work so they can be a blessing to the HIV patients. Pray also that we can get to know them more and have opportunities to share with them the Great Physician.
Picture #1: SL (L) counseling a grandfather taking care of his 4 year old orphaned granddaughter who has HIV.
Picture #2: WG (L) and SL (R) discussing a case.
