Tapologo
The Tapologo Outreach Programme provides a comprehensive and holistic response to the HIV/AIDS-related health needs of communities in the Rustenburg area with four areas of focus:
- an outreach and home-based care programme which attends to more than 1 000 patients a year;
- care for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC);
- the Tapologo Hospice in-patient unit (IPU) which is increasingly being used to stabilised immuno-compromised patients starting ART; and
- the Tapologo anti-retroviral treatment (ART) programme which complements the government's ART programme and assists more than 700 patients a year.
IBT's support for Tapologo is focused on the outreach and home-based care programme which is often the patient's first contact with Tapologo. The programme offers education for those infected and affected with HIV/AIDS, as well as counselling, nursing care, and emotional and spiritual support. These services are facilitated by community care givers (CCGs) and children affected by HIV/AIDS are effectively identified and linked into appropriate care structures. Patients are also catered for at every stage of the disease.
The IBT supports the Tapologo Outreach Programme in the RBN villages of Freedom Park, Phokeng, Luka and Kanana, which provides home-based care and support services to individuals without access to adequate support structures.
Tapologo aimed to conduct 8 400 home visits in 2007 and 2008, visiting over 350 patients an average of twice each month.
