IOM Health Team Helps Haiti's Earthquake Survivors Return Home from Hospitals
The IOM Migration Health Unit this week launched the Assisted
Patient Discharge, Transfer and Return Programme to help patients
who are medically ready to leave hospital for home and/or
rehabilitation care, but are considered vulnerable and in need of
assistance with community reintegration in the Port-au-Prince area.
With funding from USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance
(OFDA), the one-year programme will decongest crowded hospitals and
link newly discharged patients with emergency shelter, social
support, and ongoing health care services.
An IOM medical team made up of physicians, nurses and
caseworkers will manage requests received from local hospitals and
partner agencies. Requests for assistance may be made via
phone and email.
In the aftermath of Haiti's devastating January earthquake,
overloaded hospitals report a significant backlog of patients
medically ready for discharge, but unable to leave hospitals' wards
and hallways because they are homeless, lack transport to their
preferred communities and settlements and/or will be unable to
secure medical follow-up after discharge because of the distance to
rehabilitation and wound care services.
The most vulnerable earthquake survivors – including
amputees, women/single-headed households, persons with
disabilities, pregnant and post-partum women, children under the
age of 5, the elderly and those with special needs – need
assistance to move from the overcrowded hospitals and
rehabilitation centres to their communities, homes and internally
displaced settlements.
Links
Haiti's Earthquake Victims
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Countries
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Haiti
"The patients we serve are those who simply have no place to go
from the hospital. In order to restart their lives, they need
help arranging basic shelter and accessing medical care," says
Patrick Duigan, Head of IOM Health Unit in Haiti.
Such is the case of Clerette Antoine, a 76-year-old woman whose
home collapsed during the earthquake, killing her sister and
three-year-old granddaughter. Ms. Antoine was briefly trapped
in the rubble of her home, breaking multiple ribs. She was
admitted to the Hôpital de l'Université d'État
d'Haïti, where she received rehabilitation care. She has
been medically ready for discharge for weeks, but remained in the
hospital along with her sister and nephew as all are homeless and
have nowhere to go. Their only option is moving into one of
the spontaneous settlements in Port-au-Prince.
IOM and its partners have provided Ms. Antoine and her family a
sturdy ShelterBox tent, kitchen kit, hygiene kit and cots. IOM
caseworkers connected Ms. Antoine with a distant relative who is
able to make room for her tent on his property. IOM will
continue to provide medications and transport to rehabilitation
services to Ms. Antoine after her discharge from hospital.
"Patients like Ms. Antoine, who are elderly and disabled, need
more than housing. They need to restart their lives in a
setting where they can access community and social support,"
explains Jessica Greenberg, IOM Technical Advisor. "She walks with
a walker and needs help moving from sitting to standing. She
can't move into a settlement and sleep on the ground safely.
In these emergency situations, the elderly are often
forgotten."
Ms. Antoine was discharged from the hospital on Thursday, and
transported to her new home by an IOM team.
"The hospitals are full of survivors who are disabled, many of
them amputees. These are people who are ready to move on, but
have lost too much and have nowhere to go. Assisted discharge
supports them in rejoining their communities safely." adds
Greenberg.
Up to 5,000 patients and their family members will benefit from
this IOM programme over the next twelve months.
For more information, please contact:
Bertrand Martin
IOM Port-au-Prince
Tel: +509 3859 8619
E-mail:
"mailto:bmartin@iom.int">bmartin@iom.int