After gathering the data from the secondary sources and the conduction of the mass survey, a thorough analysis was done to identify the health issues that have the most effect on the health of the people of Molos. These issues were then presented to the whole community in order to ascertain if these problems are also perceived by them as well. This is also part of the social diagnosis phase wherein the residents were made aware of the current health status of the community and were asked of their thoughts and views regarding the identified problems. Our community assembly was held along with the barangay’s monthly Barangay Assembly in the hopes that more people will be able to attend. All the barangay officials were present and Dr. Maita Ladeza, the MHO of Tampilisan, was present for the affair.
During the assembly, eight perceived health problems by the team were introduced to the community. The problems or issues presented were low-income, high incidence of hypertension, high number of unvaccinated dogs, accessibility and supply of water, improper solid waste management, malnutrition, high number women not practicing proper family planning and majority of households with no toilets. They were also asked if they had health issues that they think are of great impact to their community but were not included in the presentation. They then played an integral role in the prioritization of health problems by ranking the identified problems. This led to the prioritization of four health problems namely: Hypertension, Malnutrition, Waste segregation and Water accessibility.
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“Pila mu sa balay inyo ma’am/sir?” this question, It’s all you will ever hear from us from 9am til dusk or extended til dinner time. Truth is I think we’ve already mastered the survey questionnaire to the point where we can ask the community people without looking like where actually reading it from a paper, so technically the work should be a little easier now, yet, it’s not. Maybe it’s because we’re handling more than 300 households this time compared to when we’re still in Barangay Balacbaan. I actually had a mouth sore because of the endless talking I’ve done during the day.
The data collected during the survey was enough to give us some points to give us a head start on how to approach the community and what their problems are. Though were not able to might have interview all the representatives for every households, maybe some other time we might be able to complete the data needed. For now, everything we have in hand is enough. Generally, the survey went well, everyone was kind enough to answer each of our questions, we’ve managed to make fun of ourselves during the interview because of the “uncategorized” bisaya words we were uttering, which we hope earned us points in starting our community rapport. The Barangay Officials were kind to also give us snacks and a free lunch during the day and we are whole heartedly thankful for that. And of course our ever beloved preceptor Dr. Ladeza who also brought in some NDP’s who helped us work in our survey, from our deepest hearts thank you. Our home in Molos is nearer to the highway compared to the previous barangay we lived in. In this barangay, we are able to just wait until a bus would pass by. Wewere lucky that we didn’t have to spend that much for our fare. For most of the week, we had to repeat what we did in our previous barangay. We had to do surveys all over again, meet new people all over again and gather new data.
In the last week before going home, we were still very busy with house-to house surveys, IHPs, FHPs, CHPs, graphs, and R1s. Our work didn’t become lighter but rather it was heavier than before. But at the same time, people were also starting to be lazier than usual. Most of us woke up later than usual that none even bothered to store water since the schedule for water in the morning is at 8am. In our last week, we also visited our previous barangay, Baranggay Balacbaan, which we’ve grown to love. We spent our last day there where we’ve spend 2 exposures already. And then we spent our last night together with the other groups in Doctor Maita’s house. We left Molos at about 4am the next day. Our neighbor helped us in our luggage and treated us as though we were here children. We are lucky to have been treated so nicely and that people are so kind to us. Hopefully our next exposure, we would be able to know the people more and be able to get along with them and learn about their ways. A community is never a community without people and people of the community will never be people of the community if they couldn’t relate to each other. Eight medical students would go into the community of barangay Molos, Municipality of Tampilisan and help this community in terms of health. But how would you help a community if you cannot relate to them? So, in curing health in the community, one must be with the community. The first trial of these medical students in solving the health issues of the barangay was to relate with the people of barangay Molos, know their culture, know their state, know their profile and above all, be citizens of the barangay.
The first week of being strangers in the barangay was not easy. Even though we had all those formal stuff like courtesy call with the barangay officials and BP check-ups to the senior citizens of the barangay, we still felt like aliens to the area. People would come to us in the health center, the place where we are staying, for BP check-up and no more. We felt like we are treated like office people who are working in the office. They would come in, get what they want like checking of blood pressure, immunizations, and pre-natal check-ups and then go out. It sounds good professionally because that’s what we came there for - to work. But as a medical student in Ateneo de Zamboanga University (ADZU), the vision endowed to us was far greater than office work, a vision far greater than giving the community with what they want, but giving them what they need. We (ADZU) want to help with the health issues of barangay Molos. These health issues, which will be assessed in the days to come, would not be addressed if we cannot get the cooperation from them and cooperation will not be given if you are still “aliens.” Another week has past and all we did was our “office work” and retire to our house. It will never work out that way. The only way to know the people of the barangay was to basically talk to them. One “hi” led to another, one “good day” led to another and we started talking. From acquainted, we became friends. This time, talking with the citizens of barangay Molos was not anymore about office work. It was about asking them how their day was. It was talking about who stole who’s chicken. It was about knowing whether coconut coal is better than wood coal. It was going to birthday parties like you’ve known them for years. It was feeling like you’ve been living in barangay Molos for years. The time has finally come to, like all doctors do to their patients, break the bad news. It was time to discuss to the patient the diagnosis. It was time to tell the community the health issues that we found in them and ask for their support in solving these issues. Strangely, our new found friends, the community of barangay Molos never felt the diagnosis bad to their ears. They saw our assessment as a challenge. Indeed, the relationship of friendship is better than the relationship between an office worker and client. If we would tell to them our findings as office workers, we definitely know that they will reject all of them. Who loves being told that their children are malnourished? They all go to school and play like all kids do and yet they are being told by strangers that they are malnourished. All support was given to us by the community members and their esteemed barangay officers. Now, we can help solve the health issue of our second home with full support from them knowing that they are doing it not because of some medical student’s project, but because we know that we are a community trying to achieve a common goal. One of the major activities that the group did was the hypertensive clinic. The goal of the said activity was to check and monitor the blood pressure of the residents of Barangay Molos and enroll all the hypertensives in the program of the rural health unit on hypertension. The package includes free medicine every month for all the hypertensives as long as they have their blood pressures checked monthly. This is done in an attempt to increase the compliance of hypertensive individuals in their anti-hypertensive medications. Preparing for the activity was the hardest part, the group needed to collaborate with the barangay officials as well as schedule the activity at a time most convenient for our ever busy community preceptor. Proper dissemination of information to all the residents of the barangay was done with the help of the key persons. Fortunately, the barangay officials were very supportive that they even stayed with us during the activity and attended to our needs during the hypertensive clinic. They even treated the group snacks. Scheduling the hypertensive clinic was quite challenging taking into consideration the tight schedule of our community preceptor Dr. Ladeza. She was always out of town attending seminars and busy with her consultations in the rural health unit. But luckily we were able to schedule the clinic three days before we leave the barangay. The hypertensive clinic went well and many residents were screened for hypertension. A number of people were also diagnosed with hypertension and were enrolled in the hypertension control program and given free anti-hypertensive medications. The activity was a success and it wouldn’t be possible if it weren’t for the help of the barangay officials, the residents of the barangay and Dr. Ladeza, our community preceptor. The everyone in the group as well as Dr. Ladeza were very happy because even though we only had two major activities, we were able to help a lot of people and had fun at the same time. Hypertensive Clinic Photo Gallery
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