Clad in a green saree Chitra takes an oath to Stop TB along with her colleagues at a community function during the year 2006
After graduation I got married and started work on the COHORT study for a Cancer project, where I continued to work for three years before I joined REACH. An ad in The Hindu brought me for an interview with our director Dr. Nalini Krishnan. She briefed me on how TB was an issue and told me that my responsibilities would include patient care and advocacy.
After the interview my ignorance about TB and the fact that it was a contagious disease created a lot of fear within me, which was increased by my husbands concern, who felt it was not safe for me to work in this field.
However, in spite of all the fears that kept playing on my mind I went ahead and got appointed. The initial training that I was given on TB at REACH before starting work deleted all fear and made me well informed and empowered to take up the job.
Seven years back when I started work my duties were limited to patient care and advocacy, but today it has broadened a lot and I am also involved in sensitizing doctors and pharmacists about DOTS, meeting area leaders and facilitating community programs.
Though all the patients I work with are TB patients, I need to constantly keep in mind the fact that each patient is unique and exists in a different situation and mould my approach accordingly. Many patients face different problems like poverty, family discord, spousal abuse and alcoholism, which become severe in the presence of the disease.
In cases where the patients family or spouse are indifferent towards TB treatment , my role though initially not very welcomed finally has led to positive outcomes, as most of them are moved by our concern for the patient, that they finally pitch in and start participating actively towards helping the patient recover.
However they are always a very few patients who default the reasons being bitterness of tablets, poverty, alcoholism, stigma, work pressure, migration and the inability to understand the seriousness of the disease.
Positive indicators on the field include the growing involvement of people in the community as DOT providers, the constant decline of private anti TB treatment and the increase in DOTS treatment being undertaken, the increasing acceptance of private doctors of DOTS.
My job has exposed me to different situations and different people right from the common man to highly placed officials and my job requires a great sense of tolerance and the readiness to accept both extremes of behavior from patients and their families.
At this juncture of my career I experience a great sense of satisfaction and worth which is reflected in the smile of a cured patient which radiates deep gratitude.
M.Chitra
Field Staff
REACH Blog Team