Home visit activity

Home Visit Activity Introduction It is important to understand a person’s background and the circumstances they are living in, in order to understand and make recommendations to their problems. The activity in which I involved was aimed at achieving these goals by practically involving myself in an evaluation process of a person having some trouble or health issue. In this paper, the home visit activity well as the pre-visit preparations, communications and recommendations made are outlined briefly. Pre-Visit Preparation The first task was to find a person for this activity. I chose to visit a single mother of a new born baby of about a month old. The mother is 25 years old named Jane. My friend recommended me to interview her for this task. In the planning process of this activity, I called a week in advance to see if she was willing to be interviewed. She agreed to the visit and we decided to carry out the activity on February 1 at 9 am. Although the time was set as per her consent I made a call before visiting her to make sure that the time is still suitable for her. The visit I visited Jane on the specified time. The visit started with a pleasant greeting to her and the baby. I went to wash my hands before holding the baby to give the impression of hygiene importance. To make the atmosphere friendly and light I introduced myself concisely and gave her a hand sanitizer as a gift for visitors. As per the phone conversation I expected a friendly but shy lady. However, Jane felt comfortable with me discussing her problems and circumstances. The purpose of the visit was to explore the facts which may be causing the baby girl to lose weight. The mother clearly stated that the baby was not gaining weight despite of her struggles and visits to different local doctors. The place where she lived was a small underdeveloped area with less educated and poor people surrounding it. She told about the frequent changes in medications in order to resolve this issue. She was clearly worried about the situation. Her financial conditions were not sound enough to afford a specialist and she was doing her best to get out of this trouble. The mother seemed less educated as well and did not have any background of medical field and information on health and nutrition. The mother explained that she breast feeds only and she doesn’t think that she is making enough milk as the baby still seems hungry even after breast feeding for 20 minutes on one side. The diet of the mother plays a vital role in this regard and I found out that she is not taking a good diet. She pays more attention and spends more finances on the medication for her child. Her nutritional intake did not comprise of much fruits, milk or meat. She was slim and seemed underweight herself. This information directed towards two possible reasons for the weight problems of the child which include genetics and limited nutritional elements for the mother. The baby did not have any disease or other health issues as per the reports. The medications she showed were merely to improve the baby’s vitamin and protein needs. I suggested her to pump and find out if the baby is actually getting enough milk to meet her needs. I also suggested her to use formula to meet the baby’s nutritional needs which are probably not met by breastfeeding. Moreover, I guided her on the importance of mother’s diet and its healthy outcomes on infants. I discussed about the support groups which aim to help young mothers in order to provide information, suggestions and free help on health issues of both baby and the mother.