In July last year the Community team at BCH decided to embark on a goal of decentralising services designed to address some of the health needs of teenagers and younger adults from the hospital to at least 5 outreach centres. The hope was that this would improve access to healthcare, particularly for those for whom the challenges and expense of traveling to the hospital was too great.

You can read about the background to this project and their initial progress in the November blog post on Youth Friendly Services.

Results from the second quarter of this program indicated that a total of 1985 community members had been reached out to during the quarter, and out of these 45 % were young people. All of the planned outreaches were conducted, with a total of 902 young people treated. This represents a six fold increase in the number of young people treated in the first quarter of this project.

The current quarter (October-December 2024) registered the highest number (96%) of community members mobilised and sensitised. This could be attributed to the fact that more self-gathered groups were targeted such as churches and schools.

A similar trend is seen in the number of young people who utilised the service. Bwindi Community Hospital static clinic registered an increased number (35%) of young people who utilised the service. This can be attributed to the increased sensitisation in Buhoma Town Council where the hospital is located and the increased number of educational institutions that host young people (students and pupils).

The following chart shows a breakdown of the type of services accessed.

Generally, this latest report show that Youth Friendly services are increasingly utilised by the local population. Helping more young people in addressing there physical and psycho-social needs will greatly help towards achieving the overall vision of BCH to have “a healthy and productive community free from preventable diseases and with excellent health services accessible to all”.