Activities

“Early on, we discovered that we couldn’t just put the patient in touch with the doctor and hope he or she would get cured, we needed to do far more than that. So we also began offering patients more hands-on support, sometimes financially as well”.

- Dr. Nalini Krishnan

At REACH, we believe that the fight against TB requires a multi-stakeholder, hands-on approach. In other words, every one of us, in some way or the other, at some point in our lives, has a role to play in combating TB. This is especially true of those of us who work in the private health sector in India. After all, we know that a considerable number of those with TB (or any other illness) prefer to access services from the private sector.

For this reason, REACH functions as an intermediary, liaising between those who need treatment, the RNTCP and private sector health care providers including hospitals and private practitioners. We refer to this as the PPM Project which has remained at the core of our work since 1999; PPM stands for Private Public Mix.

How this works: REACH facilitates effective and timely TB treatment for patients in the private sector, by encouraging private healthcare providers to participate in the DOTS programme and providing the necessary support for both patients and private practitioners.

Through a network of 400 private practitioners, REACH has supported over 5500 patients with the TB diagnosis, treatment and care they required.

Today, REACH operates seven PPM centres in Chennai, located in community-based and private sector hospitals. Through these centres, we offer free DOTS services to patients from surrounding areas. A full list and contact information for all PPM centres is available here.

In a nutshell, our PPM initiative involves:

  • Providing DOTS services to patients
  • Initiating treatment as per the DOTS guidelines
  • Counselling TB patients about the disease and DOTS
  • Home visits to monitor the patients progress over the six to eight months of treatment
  • Providing support in terms of nutrition and medical tests
  • Identifying patients who have stopped treatment and motivating them to complete it
  • Obtaining second opinions from government doctors for special cases
  • Networking with the local TB units for procuring DOTS boxes and providing feedback to the government TB units
  • Documentation

In addition, REACH also provides training to private providers, sharing new research on TB as well as updates in TB diagnosis and treatment.

Identifying DOTS providers:

DOTS providers are usually committed volunteers, who take on the responsibility of helping a TB patient complete his/her treatment. In other words, they ensure that a patient swallows the required tablets, often on a daily basis, and provides emotional support as well. Our volunteers include homemakers, teachers, vegetable vendors, tailors, pharmacists, hospital staff, doctors and college students. We are very grateful to these incredibly committed individuals who are the real bedrock of the TB programme in India

  1. https://vinturigallery.com/
  2. https://www.pelumrd.org/
  3. https://www.reachtbnetwork.org/
  4. https://verticalrhythm.org/
  5. https://praznikmimoze.com/
  6. https://chattanoogaanc.org/
  7. https://www.ffbanimalshelter.org/
  8. https://www.climatecostproject.org/
  9. https://marychristiefoundation.org/
  10. https://sunyeye.org/
  11. https://www.aftib.org/
  12. https://www.nspsmo.org/
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  14. https://www.cmu-cisr.org/
  15. https://alansavunmasi.org/
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