Uncategorized
Report: Annual conference of the International Society for Social Pediatrics and Child Health (ISSOP) in Budapest
The conference was held from 28. - 30.09.2017 in Budapest and summarized by our board member Nadja Tarivedian:
This year's theme was „Children on the Move“.
Apart from reports by non- and governmental organisations from Greece, Hungary, Sweden, Iceland, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, Lebanon, Austria, Slovenia, Great Britain, Switzerland, Portugal, Denmark, Japan, Israel, Pakistan, India, Australia and Germany these were the main topics of the conference:
- Concept of culture, xenophobia and discrimination in paediatrics (and how to deal with it)
- Child rights based approach - advocacy for refugee children / underage migrants
- Violence against children, child protection
It was one of the aims of the conference to develop a declaration on health and well-being of children „on the move“ that will be puclished soon.
ISSOP particularly demands equal standard of health care for all children, independent of their "status“, and disapproves of all currently available methods of age determination of children. Alternatives such as psychosocial age determination (Great Britain) were discussed. The European Academy of Paediatrics is developing ea guideline for first contact (in primary care) with migrant children in Europe.
Interesting publications of ISSOP are available on its website zu finden, e.g. the following position statements:
- Migrant child health (published in Child: care, health and development)
- Social determinants and child health (currently being reveised)
Furhter intersting links:
Master programme of the University of Pecs on migrant health (in cooperation with the University of Greifswald and others)
Annual conference of Political Child Medicine in Salzburg 10.11.17 with a focus on health care of refugee children
Next Annual conference of ISSOP 2018 in Bonn – including sessions on refugee children.
Clinical Partnership GPT-Malawi (2017-2019)
About the project
In a cooperation project with GIZ, funded by the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation (EKFS) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the GTP, supported by the Forum for International Health (www.foring.org), was very successfully involved in the further specialist training of paediatricians in Malawi from 2017 to 2019. The postgraduate programme at the College of Medicine in Malawi's capital Lilongwe is supported by several international partners and also includes the training of so-called "clinical officers" for further education in paediatrics. The project consisted of the following components for the GTP:
- Up to 6 teaching visits of German paediatricians per year in Malawi
- Implementation of community-based teaching on site
- Supervision of research projects leading to publications
- Sending volunteer doctors, nurses and midwives to teach on site
Collaboration opportunities
For components 1, 2 and 4, GTP together with BMZ sought paediatric colleagues with teaching experience or work experience in resource-poor countries who were willing to teach in Malawi for a limited period of time (from 2 weeks duration) and thus support our programme as trainers or lecturers.
Further information on the project can be obtained either from the former programme manager in Germany Dr Carsten Krüger (email) or from the then project manager on site Dr Andreas Schultz (email).
Prerequisites for participation in module 1 and 2 were:
- Specialist in paediatrics, preferably with additional qualification
- Demonstrable experience of teaching in postgraduate programmes
- Work experience or teaching experience in sub-Saharan Africa/low-resource setting
Prerequisites for participation in module 4 were:
- Completed professional training in the aforementioned disciplines
- Experience in teaching Bachelor's and Master's programmes
- Intercultural competence and team spirit
All expenses related to the preparation and implementation of the teaching components in Germany and Malawi were covered, but a salary could not be paid. We thank the colleagues who helped us to accompany young, enthusiastic Malawian specialists in their training as well as to expand our further training programme in paediatrics for "Clinical Officers".
Subspecialties in demand
- Emergency medicine
- Intensive care
- Quality management
- Neonatology
- Cardiology
- Infectious diseases
- Gastroenterology
- Allergology
- Pulmonology
- Endokrinology
- Nephrology
- Paediatric neurology
- Onkology and palliative care
Contact
Dr. Carsten Krüger (email) - Programme coordinator in Germany
Dr. Andreas Schultz (email) - Project coordinator on site