Five multidisciplinary groups in 2016 will inform the parents of children aged between 0 and 5 about methods of preventing child injury. The groups will work based on informative materials about the most spread risks of child injury in Moldova such as spooning, scalding, choking and traumas, including as a result of road accidents, IPN reports.
According to specialists, the domestic accidents are the third leading cause of death among children younger than 5 in Moldova, while the road accidents are the first leading cause of death among persons aged between 9 and 18.
The teams will work in close cooperation with the public health centers of the pilot districts and will consist of family doctors and their assistants, social workers, teachers and other active representatives of the community. At the first stage, the teams will work in the districts of Orhei, Ungheni, Comrat and Cahul and in the municipality of Chisinau, but will be gradually extended to cover the whole territory of Moldova. The activities are initiated within the Moldovan-Swiss project “Regionalization of Pediatric Emergency and Intensive Care Services in the Republic of Moldova” (REPEMOL) with the support of the Ministry of Health.
A working meeting with the specialists, organized by the REPEMOL project, centered on a mechanism for implementing the activities by public health centers in cooperation with the primary medical assistance service and the network of social workers for reaching the families. The pregnant women and families with children younger than 5 are the target groups. Special emphasis will be placed on children under guardianship.
The representative of the Public Health Center of Orhei Rafail Shihlearov said that as a result of the activities launched by REPEMOL, the Center already tested the model of cooperation with family doctors in preventing child injury. “The Center staged a seminar to train family doctors, medical assistants and directors of health centers from the district. We also distributed informative materials to parents, with the subsequent distribution of these to parents with children aged between 0 and 5. The cooperation was initiated. We are to only continue it,” he stated.
Natalia Silitrari, the representative of the National Public Health Center, said that an efficient system for educating the population to prevent child injury can be built only by increasing the number of partners. “By combining several systems, the family will gain as it will be easier to reach it for informing it about the prevention of any risk,” she stated.
The head of the Ungheni Public Health Center Raisa Popovici said that we want this activity to help us to diminish the risk of child injury at home and on the street. “We want to be the promoters of the activities at community level so that we help the families that need it, offering access to information on the protection of the health of the family,” she said.
The Regionalization of Pediatric Emergency and Intensive Care Services in the Republic of Moldova Project is financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and implemented by the Center for Health Policies and Services in cooperation with the Ministry of Health.
