Matero Care Center (MCC)
The Matero Care Center serves: as a clinic to monitor ARC patients who have stabilized, as an outpatient center for our patients with more serious conditions, and as a training center for our family caregivers,
Structure
Wellness Checks
As a result of the treatment provided in the Arm's Reach Care home-based program, the health of most patients’ stabilizes after three months. These children are transferred to a less intensive monitoring program at the Care Center. Instead of weekly home visits, the patients and family caregivers (FCGs) come for monthly checkups at the Care Center. Our staff is able to verify the child’s health and to review care procedures with the FCG so that the child is receiving the proper care she/he needs at home.
Outpatient Services
The Care Center also provides a fourth level of care for patients within the ARC program. When patients develop serious conditions, the ARC nurse refers the child to the Care Center for observation and treatment. During the first stage of its implementation, MCC is equipped with 4 beds exclusively for pediatric patients. Power of Love wants to increase this number to 8 beds in the next three months. Patients are admitted for mild to moderate conditions that can be stabilized within 4-8 hours, such as mild malaria, dehydration, chest infections, and skin conditions. More critical conditions are immediately referred to the government clinic, as are patients whose condition does not stabilize by the end of the day.
In addition, children who have stabilized can visit the Care Center between wellness checks, if a condition arises that is out of the scope of care of their FCG.
Training Program
The Care Center’s training program has 3 main points of focus: anti-retroviral therapy (ART), opportunistic infections (OI), and psychosocial care and support (PSS). The aim of the ART component of the curriculum is to provide FCGs with practical skills for administering ART to their child, monitoring side effects, and ensuring that the child adheres to treatment for life. The OI component of the training curriculum focuses on teaching FCGs about common infections and how they are linked to HIV/AIDS, how to manage them at home early (before they become severe), and what to do if the infections do become severe. The PSS component provides FCGs with the tools to respond to both their psychosocial needs as caregivers of HIV-positive children, and to the needs of these children. Ideally, training sessions are conducted for groups of 30-40 FCGs at a time.
During FCG training, the potential link between the children’s chronic illness and HIV is taught and HIV testing is promoted. In subsequent implementation stages of the Care Center, VCT services targeted toward children and their caregivers is planned.