Photo: WHO/Rocío López
The Community Health Support Staff (CHSS) project supports the employment of Syrian personnel in the Turkish health sector. It acts as a bridge between homebound patients and Migrant Health Centres by having CHSS on the constant lookout for more complicated health issues that may require intervention by a doctor from the Refugee Health Training Centre.
As part of the programme CHSS can attend trainings on providing home care to the elderly and disabled, which are regularly offered by WHO. This gives employment opportunities to the participants and provides access to primary health care services to the patients.
The programme was launched in WHO’s seven Refugee Health Training Centres in 2018. As of January 2020, 279 CHSS members have been hired and 815 patients have benefited from home care services.
The project is run jointly by the World Health Organization and the Turkish Ministry of Health and funded by the German Government through KfW Development Bank.
Before the war, Ammoun, a young mother of 2 now living in the Turkish city of Mersin, was a regular volunteer at a local hospital in the Syrian city of Idlib. She used to take care of patients and keep them company.
But she also had very personal experience as a caregiver. “My father suffered from a chronic disease, and he was in bed most of the time,” she recalls. “I used to take care of him, but one day, when he was alone, some gangs entered the house and killed him.”
Now, she can use her past experience in her new job in Turkey. Ammoun is one of the Syrian refugees enrolled in WHO’s training programme for home-care staff. Once certified, Ammoun and her fellow trainees will provide culturally sensitive home care for older and disabled Syrian refugees. “I like everything about this job. I had some previous knowledge about home care, but now I’m learning the right way to do it,” she says.
This project is funded by the German Federal Government through KfW Development Bank.