Swiss AIDS Care International: Improving support for children and adolescents
Harare, 22 July 2013 - With two new projects, Newlands Clinic is seeking to provide better support for HIV-positive children and adolescents. The Early Intervention Programme is aimed at babies and toddlers who have motor and cognitive developmental delays associated with HIV. The second project is aimed at providing psychosocial support to help young people going through the difficult phase of puberty.
Children and adolescents make up around a quarter of the patients at Newlands Clinic. Many of them are AIDS orphans and live in abject poverty. Added to this, they are weakened by the HIV infection since the virus damages all organ systems. The two new projects are designed to provide specific support in these cases.
Development programme for small children
In the case of HIV-infected newborns, it is above all the central nervous system that is affected. This leads to marked delays in cognitive, motor and language development in early childhood. The later the infants and children receive antiretroviral therapy, the greater these delays are. Normal milestones such as sitting, talking and walking are only reached after lengthy delays, and in some cases not at all. Support covering a range of disciplines is needed to ensure the healthy development of the babies and toddlers being treated at Newlands Clinic.
The newly launched Early Intervention Programme, which will initially be offered for 50 children, comprises a specific development programme featuring physiotherapy, play therapy and cognitive stimulation. This will allow the small children to catch up on the delays in their cognitive, motor and language development. Two members of staff have been specifically trained for this. The therapy will be provided in the school room, and a playground has also been set up in the grounds of the Clinic.
Psychosocial support for adolescents
A second project, which began at the start of July, is aimed at adolescents. As a result of the disease and their circumstances, many teenagers suffer great psychological distress and therefore often do not take their medication regularly. This can very quickly result in the therapy failing, and can lead to death over the medium term. Two Swiss child psychiatrists have developed a corresponding project. A psychologist is currently carrying out screening.