SEEPD program capacitates Health Promoters and Field Workers on Ear and Hearing Care
Health Promoters drawn from the CBC Health Services Life Abundant Primary Healthcare Centers and Field Workers have undertaken a two-day workshop on Primary Ear and Hearing Care. The workshop, which ran from November 30 to December 1, 2021 took place at the Baptist Center in Bamenda.
During this training, participants were drilled to better understand the Ear and Hearing Care Project. They received knowledge on the Ear Anatomy and Physiology, Ear complaints, Causes, Signs and symptoms of ear infections, Providing ear care in the context of COVID-19, Prevention of ear diseases and hearing, Diagnosis treatment and referral, Inclusive healthcare, Data collection and reporting, and Community outreach for ear and hearing care.
Participants who attended the workshop attest to its usefulness and plan to use the knowledge for better service delivery in the community.
One of the participants, Njego Clarense said “It made me to understand my role as a field worker which is to identify, assess and refer persons needing ear care. It also made me to understand some causes of hearing loss. This will help me to be able to present a good awareness raising on ear care in my community. Also it made me to understand the various prevention ways to hearing loss. The presentation on the Anatomy of the ear also made me to understand how the ear is linked with the throat and the nose. This widened my understanding of the ear”.
“The workshop was very useful to me because it gave me an insight of how the ear is structured. It equally gave me knowledge on ear hygiene and it is the message I will be passing out to the community. I did not know that the ear outside is just one component while the inside has the ear drum, the ear canal and the internal structures that lead to the brain, the heart, the nose and all of these are things I never thought of. In my field work when disseminating information to the community, I will be able to explain to them how sensitive the ear is and what they can do to protect and prevent it from infections,” Clarence remarked.
Reports say, this project will greatly help people in the communities who sometimes are ignorant of practices that harm their ears, fail to seek medical attention in time, ignore some of the conditions and only seek medical attention when it is too late which sometimes lead to hearing impairment.
The Ear and Hearing Care project under the Socio Economic Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities of the CBC Health Services is funded by CBM.