People informed about risk of child accidents at home

Over 80 family medical workers from Chisinau’s Botanica district during a month went from door to door and discussed with parents who have children younger than five. Polina Loboda, vice director of the Public Medical-Sanitary Institution of the Botanica Territorial Medical Association on problems of medical assistance provided to the mother and child, has told Info-Prim Neo that the medical workers have been involved in a broad campaign to raise the parents’ awareness of the risk of home accidents involving children. “The campaign “A danger-free home for your child!” is beneficial and I hope that we will manage to reduce the number of child accidents and to make the parents more responsible,” said Polina Loboda. Before being engaged in the campaign, the medical workers had been trained how to deliver accident prevention messages and how to counsel the family on the theme. During a month, they visited about 3,000 families. The parents received a guidebook about how to supervise a small child. “The aim was to remove the factors that can lead to accidents in the home,” stated Polina Loboda. According to her, the families welcomed the medical workers and admitted that such visits contribute to increasing the parents’ responsibility. The campaign will continue with repeated visits to remind the parents to what risks their children area exposed. There will be paid by four visits until 2013. The children’s life and health is every day in danger when the parents or other members of the family do something that can have serious consequences for a small child: leave the cup with hot tea or coffee on the edge of the table, leave drugs on the table or nightstand, leave the window open when the child is alone in the room, etc. The campaign “A danger-free home for your child!” is carried out within the Moldovan-Swiss technical and financial assistance project REPEMOL – “Regionalization of the Paediatric Emergency and Intensive Care Services in Moldova” in partnership with the Ministry of Health and the Center for Health Policies and Services. A national study conducted by REPEMOL in 2011 shows that 75.5% of the persons who look after children younger than five realize the danger of children being hurt in home accidents. Only 9.4% of the respondents could yet mention at least one source of danger. According to the Ministry of Health, 62 children under five died as a result of traumas and poisonings last year.