Family Health Exercise
General description of the course
The course Family Health Exercise is designed to enable the students to understand the social, cultural, psychological, gender and economical aspects of illness; the interactions of ill persons with different members of family and community health service; role of Family members and family environment in patient care. Students will understand the natural history of disease and importance of patient follow up. It is expected that students will be able to differentiate the nature of the problems while seeing the patients in the family from the nature of the same problems when the patient is seen in clinic or hospital.
Specific objectives.
Students will be able to:
II. Methods
Students will be given 30 hours orientation comprising theoretical concepts and practical guidelines to implementation of the exercise. During the orientation, students will be divided into small groups comprising 5–6 students; each group will develop the action plan of the exercise.
Each group will be assigned 5 cases for family visits and follow ups. The cases will be:
1. One case of infectious disease e.g., leprosy, tuberculosis, malaria, STI, common surgical/medical, Gynae/Obs, Eye/ENT and paediatric problems;
2. One case of non-infectious disease, e.g., COPD, bronchial asthma, congenital abnormalities etc.;
3. One case of physical handicap requiring rehabilitation;
4. One case of mental handicap or mental or psychosomatic disorder;
5. One case to be selected by the students themselves.
The cases will be selected from the outdoor or indoor patients after discharge from respective hospitals. The group will visit each case at least for three times in the family to collect the relevant information from the patients and family members and to observe the dynamics of the disease. During the visits, students will also provide counselling to the patients and the family members, encourage compliance, and facilitate them to seek the appropriate services.
The students will be supervised by the faculty periodically during the visits.
After completion of the visits, students will present the findings and their learning reflections in the campus.
Finally, each group of the students will submit the report of the family health exercise.
Requirements of the Report:
1. The case history including clinical and laboratory findings and diagnosis
2. Habits, culture and customs which may influence the disease
3. Care pattern of healer (medical personnel or traditional healer or other)
4. Care and support system by the community and family members
5. Social, psychological, gender and economical aspects of the disease in the family
6. Development of disease process and treatment
7. Alternatives for the care and rehabilitation
8. Gender analysis with specific tools to understand the gender issues
9. Learning reflection
III. Course contents of Orientation sessions
1. Introduction to Family Health Exercise field program
2. Concept of family medicine
3. Health care seeking behaviours and its dimensions
4. Psychological counseling
5. Coping mechanisms and adapting mechanisms
6. Family health exercise: Approaches and process
