Monday, December 8, 2008

USAID backs Capitol’s Public Health Drive

LINGAYEN----The province in coordination with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has finalized the Provincial Strategic Communication Plans (SCP) for 2009 which will reinforce the public health programs of the province.

In a two-day SCP close-out meeting held last week at Richmonde Hotel in Manila, the HealthPRO team led by Gerard Suanes assisted the provincial health office (PHO) through its program coordinators in finetuning the consolidated output on health promotions for maternal and neo-natal health care (MNHC), child health care (CH), avian flu and tuberculosis (TB) and family planning & HIV/AIDS.

The meeting was an offshoot of the three-day strategic communication planning seminar-workshop held in September at the Capitol Resort Hotel with all coordinators in inter-local health zones in the province playing a big role in setting up an effective communication strategy for the success implementation and sustainability of these key health programs in their respective locality.

Led by PHO officer-in-charge Dr. Jackson D. Soriano, the program coordinators has come up with a final SCP 2009 targeting the local chief executives and local health board to become the major supporters of these programs.

The SCP 2009 outlines several BCC activities which include the use of interpersonal communication approach (IPC) to all LCEs, Sangguniang Bayans, local health board wherein expected outcome would be the passage of ordinances and budget allocation for a sustainable health programs in their locality.

In achieving these goals, the province has formed a SCP mentoring team tasked to assist the PHO and the municipal health offices in implementing health promotion and provide communication initiatives on FP, MNCHN, TB and HIV/AIDS programs.

The mentoring team is tasked to develop an effective communication tools using tri-media approach (radio, TV and print) to raise mass awareness on health programs. It is also tasked to provide communication skills needs among health personnel and providers at the provincial and municipal level.

The SCP mentoring team will be headed by Orpheus Velasco, provincial information officer with co-chair Lita Duque from the Pangasinan Federation of Non-Government Organizations (PFNGOs). (Merly R. Tibalao/PIO)

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