31.05.2021

Preliminary Outcomes of the EB Fund Projects in the North West Russia

The cooperation between LHL International and EB Fund has lasted for a long period of time already. Over the years of cooperation, we have learned a lot from our Norwegian partners. A significant experience for Russian colleagues has become the training of medical workers in Health Communication with patients and their colleagues.

Despite Covid-19, when medical workers are at the forefront of the fight against this evil, in Arkhangelsk, in 2021, EB Fund managed to develop and conduct a regional project aimed at preventing emotional burnout in medical workers that included a Health Communication training.

The project has been implemented by the Russian partners only, and the training conducted within the framework of the project has received high evaluation. Here are some of the quotes from the course:

"This project should be accessible to all health workers to avoid burnout in their workplace, to make communication with their colleagues and patients more effective."

"I really liked the ease and accessibility of information; with the same ease I will be able to apply new knowledge in my daily life. I began to think positively, communicate without judgement, and again began to formulate my goals clearly."

"The training is relevant, I think that such courses should be conducted from the very beginning of the working life and throughout its entire period in order to avoid early burnout, stress and conflicts. It would be great to have it once a year."

"This is relevant for me. You can relax. Everything somehow becomes simple. Information is perceived easily. I'm leaving as a different person."

Although we are living in the Covid-19 pandemic for the second year, almost all project activities have been carried out and even expanded: the topic of Covid-19 has been added to the topics of discussion of tuberculosis and HIV, and the range of specialists involved in anti-tuberculosis work has increased. For example, in Murmansk (Reduce the Burden of TB in the Murmansk Oblast) in 2021, an online course for district TB doctors of the Murmansk Oblast was held, which discussed the organizing examination and treatment of patients with tuberculosis / COVID-19, and in the Republic of Komi (Syktyvkar – a Territory Free from Tuberculosis), an online course Modern Organization of Anti-Tuberculosis Work of GPs was held.

It is important that during the implementation of the projects, there came an understanding that the medical community alongside with the government agencies and public organizations have to put a lot more of joint effort to TB prevention: to reach and examine high risk groups - these are people who are left in a difficult life situation (unemployed, PLHIV, homeless people, etc). This practice was first introduced in Severodvinsk, where more than 3,000 people up to this point have already been involved in the examination procedures, despite the situation with Covid-19.  Among the examined people, 2 persons had tuberculosis and more than 70 people had latent tuberculosis infection. On the one hand, carrying out preventive treatment in patients with LTI according to international standards with the use of rifapentin prevents falling ill with the local tuberculosis in this group of people, and, on the other hand, stops the spread of this infection among the population.

A special feature of our projects is their focus on the needs and problems of a patient with tuberculosis, tuberculosis / HIV, hepatitis and COVID-19. Specialists involved in our projects are engaged in careful selection of the place of treatment that is convenient for the patient, with the use of digital treatment options (video-observed medication intake). The pilot project in the Murmansk Oblast demonstrated the possibilities of wide use of video-observed treatment (in 2020, there were 50 patients on VOT), which is patient-friendly and a source of inspiration for specialists!