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Drug-resistant tuberculosis patient education and counselling

Past project

We're reducing the Impact of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis through Patient-centred Education and Counselling (PEC). Burnet’s aim is to accelerate change through interventions that are informed and driven by the local stakeholders and community. We have a major focus on building local health worker capacity and strengthening systems to sustain the response.

Objective

A key example of this is through the way we are engaging and empowering the TB affected community in Daru, Papua New Guinea, through a pilot model of patient education and counselling (PEC) that trains and mentors a team of peer-counsellors or “TB-PALS” (People Affected by, Living with, or having Survived TB) to provide education and counselling to people taking treatment for TB disease and infection, and their families.

This team uses a patient-centred approach to provide psycho-emotional support, facilitate adherence to treatment and promote well-being.

The model of care integrates with facility and community-based delivery systems for both drug-sensitive (DS-TB) and drug-resistant (DR-TB) care and prevention that the Burnet Reducing the Impact of Drug-Resistant TB (RID-TB) project supports.

Timeline

2016–2020.

Community impact

Patient surveys regarding the counselling and education services have resulted in high satisfaction rates, demonstrating the appreciation felt by people on TB treatment for the support provided by the project team.

Feedback from people on treatment and their families, combined with the high treatment completion rate in Daru, show that the project is abiding by its aim of reducing the impact of social and emotional issues on TB patients and their families.

Reduction of the barriers to treatment will ultimately contribute to a reduction in TB transmission in Daru.

Partners

Funding partners

Supported by the Australian Government.

Partner logo

Collaborators

  • Provincial Health Office, Western Province, PNG, National Department of Health, PNG
  • World Vision International
  • Health and HIV Implementation Service Provider (HHISP), South Fly District Health Service , PNG
  • Daru General Hospital, PNG

Project contacts

Dr Khai Lin Huang

Dr Khai Lin Huang

Co-Head Tuberculosis Elimination and Implementation Science, Senior Research Fellow
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Project team

Associate Professor Suman  Majumdar

Associate Professor Suman Majumdar

Chief Health Officer - COVID & Health Emergencies; Deputy Program Director, Health Security and Pandemic Preparedness; Principal Research Fellow
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Geoffrey Chan

Geoffrey Chan

Health Systems and Strategic Information Specialist
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April Holmes

April Holmes

Project Manager
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Dr Khai Lin Huang

Dr Khai Lin Huang

Co-Head Tuberculosis Elimination and Implementation Science, Senior Research Fellow
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Dr Stobdan Kalon

Dr Stobdan Kalon

RID TB Project, Disease Elimination; Head, Tuberculosis Elimination & Implementation Science
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Tess  Keam

Tess Keam

Social Worker
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James Lawson

James Lawson

Program Manager / Country Program Manager
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Julie  Tartaggia

Julie Tartaggia

Program Manager, Lao PDR and the Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP)
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