B. Community Activities at Sonargaon:

Sonargaon upazila has been selected as the field practice area of ICMH and that has been approved by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. A brief account on socio-demographic characteristics, available health care facilities and the administrative setup of Sonargaon upazila (sub-district) has been annexed (Annex 5).

Objectives of Sonargoan activities are :

• to optimize the existing community health services at different levels of Sonargaon by developing a partnership between the Sonargoan Health Complex and ICMH
• supporting ESP programme at community level at Sonargaon and Jalkuri
• to improve the health and nutrition status of mothers and children by conducting essential health research and providing health care services.
• to involve the community to ensure EOC services
• to develop a referral system between Sonargaon and ICMH
• to enhance the delivery of health and nutrition care by providing training of the various health care providers in the real life situation.
• strengthening of Community-based Neonatal Tetanus (NT) and Neonatal Death (ND) Surveillance at Sonargaon
• strengthening Community-based AFP Surveillance at Sonargaon

The ICMH staff - academics, doctors and community health workers (CHWs) extended their support to the UHC staff at various levels e.g. UHC, UHFWC and also at the community health centres. The activities include supporting UHC staff in medical management of cases at various levels, to strengthen management, to train UHC staff on medical and management skills. This is also an excellent learning opportunity for the ICMH staff.

Community Activities at Sonargaon:

- Planning community activities - ICMH faculty with UHFPO, Sonargaon Health Complex
- Sharing community activity plan with health care providers of Sonargoan Health Complex
- Dr. JGF Anten, Consultant, NMCP, visited Sonargaon community
- ORS feeding at a satellite clinic
- Seminar at Sonargaon Women's College on World AIDS Day
- Continuing Medical Education at Sonargaon Health Complex
- Experience sharing with BRAC Depot Holders

C Health and nutrition promotion programme at the ICMH:

· Health Education programme
· Other heath promotion activities at hospital like growth monitoring, Immunization, breast feeding

D Involvement of ICMH in HPSP:

ICMH is involved in strengthening the ESP Programme of HPSP of the government of Bangladesh. In order to initiate and optimise the ESP services, the Department of Epidemiology & Bio-statistics is performing a key role. Sonargaon has been identified earlier as the field practice area of ICMH and the institute has a keen interest to develop the Thana Health Complex and its community as a model and training base for the implementation of ESP services. To identify the possible involvement of ICMH at Sonargoan regarding the development of partnership in ESP a one-day workshop was held on August 22, 1999 at the Conference Room 3 of ICMH.

The objectives of the workshop were to become familiarized with the HPSP and to find out the possible community involvement of ICMH at Sonargaon in the light of HPSP. After the introduction by the Director, four presentations were made namely, Reproductive Health and Gender issue, Child health care and Limited curative care, Control of communicable diseases, and Management Issues including ESP delivery, support services and Quality Assurance of HPSP which were based on HPSP manual, by the faculty members. Each presentation was followed by a short discussion, where the academics participated actively. Finally Dr. JGF Anten, NMCP Consultant, gave a brief note of his report "Institute of Child and Mother Health - Thoughts on its contribution to Implementing the HPSP 1998 - 2003". The workshop ended with a brain storming session and the following conclusions were made:

• the involvement of ICMH at Sonargaon will be to implement the HPSP
• the institute will create a model of ESP services at Sonargaon, using existing GOB health care providers
• the role of ICMH will be to conduct, give guidance and consultation
• initially four or five unions will be selected for the base line survey (Census)
• some targets will be fixed up by observing the results of the base line survey to observe the achievement (e.g. to reduce IMR)
• ICMH will provide training for health care providers on HPSP, the ESP in particular.

Other Activities:

• Emergency Medical Services During Disaster
• Supporting various national health and family planning programmes
  BBF, IMCI, CME, NIPHP, HPSP, BINP
• National Immunization Day
  Participate in planning, supervision, monitoring of all the NID programmes so far conducted
• Centre for Medical Education
  Involved as adjunct faculty member
  

5 Computerisation- ICMH is in pioneer position:

As a research, training and service institute, the Institute of Child and Mother Health (ICMH) will have to deal with large amount of information, gather large volumes of data to produce various documents. Patients are the key people of this institute. Patients' records are vital for better management as well as medical research and also for training programmes. For this reason a good and effective management of medical records is essential. Only a well-designed Management Information System (MIS) can provide information exactly and immediately when needed. A computer network service will be able to give momentum and optimise the information activities of the ICMH.

Keeping the above background in mind, Computer Science Division (CSD) was established here to provide computer support for the institute to achieve its goals. Some of the major functions of the division are:

• Software development and maintenance
• Network support and administration
• Computer hardware trouble-shooting
• Organise and conduct computer training programs
• Assessment of computer need and adapt newer technologies
• Assisting in procurement of computer and related equipment
• Keep liaison with computer dealers and computer based information dissemination centres.
  

It has become obvious from our mission, vision and objectives that ICMH is not only intend to provide health care services within the four walls of hospital but also to extend its comprehensive services in the community. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics is the focal department for these activities. The following are the few community activities undertaken by the ICMH.