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| parents waiting for epilespy medication in wabwoko |
Why so many children needing epilepsy medication?
Over the years we have seen more epilepsy cases than we ever imagined. In Uganda one of the major causes we are finding of epilepsy is due to malaria. Many people may have never realized that malaria has an impact on a children’s brain and can lead to epilepsy. I would say that 80% of all cases we see is due to untreated or prolonged malaria. This is not a scientific or medical explanation but a cause we have found through experience and hearing many stories.
Why do we need to provide epilepsy medication?
Time and time again visiting different medical clinics as spring of hope we have found that medical facilities are not providing epilepsy medication and the knowledge of epilepsy is very limited. Some time ago I came across a child who had epilepsy and I was asked to help as the child kept spending time in a local hospital the only treatment the child was getting was a drip of medication. Then when the child went home and the child was then given no medication. The child was having seizures again, so they asked me to soh to help provide medication. The child’s life changed completely. One tablet changed a child’s life!!
Through research and the above experience we realized we needed to do something, so now we host two clinics a month alongside two health centers giving out epilepsy medication. The cues of people we see on those days its crazy!! People cue jump so that they do not have to wait in line!!
A case study written BY Eva Nabukalu who is a SWASA (SOCIAL WORK ADMINISTRATION STUDENT) AT KYAMBOGO UNIVERSITY). (some more case studies too come soon)Name of child: Namuseolko Halmia
Age 8
Father’s name: Musis Mubarak
Occupation police man
Village Bulawoko 13
Parish Nkoko Njeru
Sub county Wabwoko
Halmia’s story
A case study of a child who had epilepsy and was abandoned by the parent.
Walusimbi Asuman was born normal, at three years he got cerebral malaria. The parents took him to the hospital (Mulago hospital) and was given treatment but there was no improvement. Then after some months, the child got epilepsy and was abandoned by the parents, then was taken by the grand mother who was very old and financially unstable.
At the age of 2 years old Halmia started to have seizures, and was then was taken to Nkoko Njeru Hospital for medical treatment. She was then given some injections and treatment which didn’t work as they were not continuous. She went home and had seizures again. Recently she came into contact with our clinic in Wabwoko and is now at the point of having epilepsy medication on a regular basis and is now starting to see a little improvement but it is a long journey before she see’s total improvement.
Challenges that the student faced:
• There was language barrier since the parents could not understand English, there fore there need for translation.
• Failure to express the cause of the problem. In this case, the parent could only freely express the root cause of the child’s suffering. This was another problem since it was not easy for the student to find out the real background of the child’s suffering.
• There was limited literature on how to deal with counseling of epileptic cases.
ACHIEVEMENTS.
• The student was able to solve the client’s problem when using the problem solving processes like problem definition, evaluation, termination and referral for medication. This greatly changed the life of the child and the student’s field work training at large.
• The student learnt how to associate with different people in the community and this was through the use of different communication skills like listening, observation and communication skills.
• There was promotion of unity and rapport between the student and the client. This was as a result of interacting and use of the interpersonal skills and at the end, it promoted trust by the client which is yet an achievement.
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