India—Home visit teams
Photography Harsha Vadlamani/Two Worlds Cancer
Small brick shelters with tin roofs sit at the edge of a construction site in Bowrampeet on the outskirts of Hyderabad. One of the shelters is home for five-year-old Abhiram and his family. Abhiram’s father works at the site.
The children’s palliative home care team led by Swarup Immaraju from the Mandara Hospice for Children visits Abhiram and his family providing supportive care.
Today this team is one of ten home-care teams that provide compassionate care for children and adults at their homes. The teams includes a nurse and counsellor and when necessary one of the palliative care doctors will join the team on patient visits.
For many patients, like 14-month-old Rishi who had brain surgery, the teams provide follow-up care outside the hospitals ensuring continuity of care, pain relief and counselling support for parents.
The teams visit patients and their families six days a week but are reachable via the team’s mobile at any time.
Background
Initially sponsored by a pharmaceutical company, the first home care team was then funded by Two Worlds Cancer Collaboration starting in 2012. The success of this home care and the overwhelming need inspired an India-based NGO to fund a second home care team in 2013. Today the program is fully-funded by NGOs in Hyderabad supporting ten home care vans and staff.