GEORGE NEWS - The Nurse Kitty programme, a Western Cape Government Health initiative in George, has gone from strength to strength since it was established in 2016 by a multidisciplinary team of health professionals.
Rooibootjie Crèche in Syferfontein recently received a visit from Nurse Kitty. The children were excited, and some nervous to meet the team that will have a positive impact on their future.
"What a wonderful programme. The team assessed the children and each child received an activity book," said Almarie Wijgergangs, principal at Rooibootjie Crèche.
Child wellness
The programme identifies eight local crèches annually. The aim is to ensure accessibility to therapeutic services, transfer knowledge and skills to teachers and parents and establish an increased awareness regarding the wellness of children.
"Nurse Kitty has played an important role in identifying and attending to problems in the pre-school age group. If these were not attended to during their formative years, it could have a large impact on the child's future, not only health-wise. Many children are slipping through the cracks because the parents are generally not taking responsibility or are unaware of the problems," said Hannelie Louw, George sub-district medical manager.
On each outreach the team aims to help children in need of therapeutic services and basic health care through multidisciplinary team interventions. The team consists of nurses, a dietician, occupational therapists, social worker, oral hygienist, audiologist, speech therapist and environmental health practitioners.
Staff do individual assessments of the children.
Familiarise
Children are taught lifesaving habits like proper hand washing and personal hygiene to form part of their daily future living. The team also uses this opportunity to create awareness among the children to attend the clinic regularly.
"We want the children to not only view the clinic as a place for sick people and where they get injections. We want to familiarise them with the set-up to make them more inclined to visit the clinic when older," said Luske Theron, George subdistrict dietician.
Children are also taught the importance of immunisations, vitamin A and deworming. Community health workers play an important role in the programme. They have been trained to screen the children before each crèche visit and only children with signed consent forms receive individual attention on the day. Children will then be referred, if necessary, to their clinic for further treatment. The programme also relies on teachers and their ability to identify children that are at risk.
The department offers a workshop for the teachers to equip them with the skills to identify these children. Crèches to benefit from the programme in 2018 are Sonneblomland, Lubabalo, Rooibootjie, Siembamba, Sanda-Nezwe, Paddavoetjies (Rising Juniors), Nonzame and Rosedale.
Nurse Kitty wants to ensure that all our children develop to their full potential.
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