Source: https://porpulace.com.ng/medical-outreach-program-objectives

A medical outreach program is a conglomeration of activities carried out by a group of people, mainly health professionals in communities or areas of need. People within the target communities benefit during these medical outreaches.

A lot of activities are carried out involving medical personnel, targeted at a particular community or area, or a particular group of people with their peculiar needs. Most, if not all, of these activities and services are free of cost to the beneficiaries.

Health talks are also given during medical outreaches. These are geared towards equipping the target group with the information to develop healthy lifestyle habits.

When Are Medical Outreaches Carried Out?

By “when” we mean at what time of the year? Generally, medical outreaches can be carried out at any point in time, whether at the beginning of the year or at the end of the year.

However, sometimes is carried out at strategic times. For instance, in Nigeria, you have a lot of people carrying out medical outreach programs towards the end of the year, that is during the month of December.

Some people also conduct outreaches during special events and seasons like religious festivals and public holidays, women August meeting period (in South-Eastern parts of Nigeria), as part of someone’s birthday celebrations and so on.

So, Who Organizes Medical Outreach Programs?

Who carries out the medical outreach program? Who is involved in the medical outreach program?

The idea for a medical outreach program can come from anybody and not just medical personnel. However, in order to plan and carry it out effectively, you definitely need the input and participation of medical personnel.

The idea for a medical outreach program can come from the following:


1) Youth groups


2) Women groups


3) Men groups


4) Town or community development groups or associations


5) Individuals


6) Philanthropists


7) Civil society organizations


Corporate bodies


9) Religious bodies


10) Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

How Are Medical Outreaches Organized?

Medical outreach is organized following a plan.

You need to have in mind the medical outreach program objectives you wish to achieve.

First of all, the needs of the community are assessed. And the plan is thereafter drawn.

This plan entails everything that has to be done from start to finish, the scope of the outreach as well as funding, sourcing of drugs and other consumables, down to the personnel that will be needed to work during the outreach day(s).

Medical outreach flyers, banners, posters or handbills can be designed to create awareness about the outreach to the target.

7 Medical Outreach Program Objectives

Every program has an objective or a set of objectives that the initiators have in mind for setting it up. The same goes for medical outreach.


Some of the medical outreach program objectives are as follows:

1) To Save Lives.

One of the most important medical outreach program objectives is to save lives.

In many parts of Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa, many parts of the world, people are at risk of a lot of diseases and the life expectancy is generally low.

Some people are not even aware of when they acquire these diseases because they cannot afford to go to hospitals.

Some other people, even though they know the health conditiond they are suffering from, cannot afford the cost of drugs for their treatment. Some take these drugs sporadically because of lack of money.

However, during medical outreaches, some interventions come in, including free drugs and talks on how to achieve a healthy lifestyle. Ultimately, this goes a long way in prolonging the life of the beneficiaries.

If not for anything, the free drugs they are given during the outreach can be of benefit to them especially to the poor who cannot buy them when they are prescribed in a health facility.

2) To Improve Quality Of Lives.

During medical outreach, some free screening services may be offered. This include HIV test, Blood sugar test, Malaria Parasite, PCV and other tests.

As shocking as it sounds, some people may have symptoms that point to a condition like Diabetes, but have not even gone to a health facility in order to know what is wrong with themselves.

This is basically due to poverty. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, 133 million or 63% of Nigerians currently live in multidimensional poverty in 2022.

Free screening services provided during a medical outreach program gives the beneficiaries the opportunity of knowing what is wrong with them and being treated as well. This leads to an overall improvement in their quality of life.

3) It Is A Way Of Giving Back To The Society.

Just like we’ve said earlier, medical outreaches can sometimes be spearheaded by people who are not even medical professionals. They do it as a way of reinvesting into the communities, supporting the communities, or as a way of giving back to the communities.

Some organizations may set aside part of their yearly budget to carry out medical outreach activities in one or more societies. This may be what they do as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility.

Wealthy or influential individuals or a group of people may also come together and push for a medical outreach within their community or other communities. Ultimately, they derive joy in having done something for their communities or those in need of healthcare services.

4) For Capacity Building

Sometimes when these outreaches are organized, you discover that the health facilities within that area may not be able to carry out some procedures or may not have the facilities and even the “know-how” to tackle some of the health challenges.

During these outages, an arrangement may be made in order to “brush up” or train the personnel in the surrounding health facilities and bring them up to date with some basic skills or thins they need to do when they meet some of the health issues.

This will make it possible for the gains of the outreach to be sustained even when the medical outreach has ended and the team has left. It will also make it possible for the beneficiaries of the outreach to still be well followed up at the local health facilities after the outreach has ended.

5) To Bring In New Skills

During the medical outreach, there is room to learn new skills and procedures, especially by the local health staff.

A lot of procedures and activities are carried out during outreaches which they may not be familiar with. With good collaboration, they can learn so that they can be of better benefit to their patients after the outreach has ended.

This may make it also unnecessary for members of the community to have to travel long distances to other towns in order to access good medical care.

6) To Help Out During Peak Periods Of Sicknesses

Some diseases or health conditions have “peak periods”. By that, we mean the times, months or seasons of the year when they occur or are seen the most. This is when people present or are diagnosed with these ailments the most.

During such periods, the local health facilities may get overwhelmed because of the increased number of the people who get to these facilities to seek treatment and care.

Medical outreaches may be targeted at such seasons and services be tailored in order to be able to attend to those with such complaints.

7) To Make Up For Shortages Of Medical Personnel

In many less developed countries, including Nigeria, there is a worsening doctor-to-patient ratio.

Brain drain, which is the leaving of our professionals to other countries in search of better life and work opportunities, has worsened this issue.

For example, a health facility may have staff that can attend to 20 or 30 per day. However, you may discover that up to 50 people go to this facility daily for their health needs.

This puts a burden on the workers, on the facilities. People will have to wait for long in order to even be attended to.

This leads to a lot of time-wasting, dissatisfaction and so on.

Medical outreach programs can step in to supplement the efforts of the few personnel at the local health facilities and make sure the people of those communities do not suffer too much.

During these outreaches, more doctors, nurses and other health personnel are involved. The beneficiaries thus have more health personnel to attend to their needs.

However, note that this is just a “quick-fix’ so to say, and not a permanent solution to the shortage of the medical personnel.

Conclusion


Medical outreach is very important and is of immense benefit to the beneficiaries.

A lot of individuals and organizations, corporate and social organizations, are involved in medical outreaches.


In order to assess or evaluate these outreaches, one of the things to define is the objective or what you hope to achieve by embarking on the outreach in the first place.

When these objectives are well pursued, the outreach will end up being of immense benefit to the individuals and communities who are the recipients of such efforts.

Nice write up,it helps me for some tips for my project.....

SILENTandSMART2:
Nice write up,it helps me for some tips for my project.....

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