Welcome to the CATHCA Website!
Who we are:
CATHCA is the Catholic Health Care Association of Southern
Africa. Some of us are doctors, some nurses, some community
health workers, or other health professionals, and many of us are lay people
doing voluntary work as home based caregivers, administrators, bookkeepers, or
looking after orphans or the elderly in homes and care centres across the
country.
Where we are:
We work around the country in
all nine Provinces of South Africa, and in Botswana and Swaziland, in 38 clinics,
two hospitals, many old age homes, hospices,
orphanages and many Diocesan and parish
projects combating HIV/AIDS. See the button marked "Members"
to the left.
CATHCA e-news
March
2012 edition
Greetings
from us all at CATHCA, as the days begin to close in and a beautiful autumn is
around the corner.
In
this edition:
Overview of the SA
government’s key health priorities and proposed spend in the 2012 budget
address, research findings on orphans leaving institutionalised care, comment on
the Green Paper on the National Health Insurance, and publication of the
District Health Barometer 2010/2011 and the SA Health Review 2011.
News
from the CATHCA office
In January we regretfully
bade farewell to Ellen who has gone on to lecture at a nursing college and to
pursue her vocation as a traditional healer. Vida has taken on Ellen’s role as
programme manager for our CIDA programme and she, Hester and Yvonne had an
intensive one-day workshop with CIDA on the programme which is now entering its
final year.
Yvonne presented on
CATHCA’s progress and the future of Catholic health care to the bishops at
their plenary in January in
Pretoria
, and as a follow-on to the development projects of the
Archdiocese of Pretoria on the same topic. CATHCA has been asked to assist the
bishops of the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference in forming a health desk or
association to support Catholic health care in
South Sudan
, following its recent independence from the North.
The Global Fund team are
winding up their activities as the programme ends after four years, and
preparing the hand-over report. Teresa, Maureen and Hester travelled to Aliwal
North with the GF consultant conducting the mid-term review to visit diocesan
projects there funded by CATHCA. The consultant who has visited other GF
projects was most impressed by the great work being done in that diocese in
health. CATHCA’s auditors completed their annual audit in February, and CATHCA
staff have begun preparations for our bi-annual National Conference at the end
of March (more details below).
The
2012 CATHCA National Conference
The Way Forward is
the theme for CATHCA’s 2012 National Conference from March 30th to
April 1st, at the Good Shepherd Centre in Hartbeespoort, outside
Pretoria
. We will be looking at the face of Catholic health care in
Botswana
,
Swaziland
and
South Africa
, and what it might look like in the future. This is also the
major networking opportunity for CATHCA members this year.
Book your place now as we
have limited beds available. Day visitors on Saturday 31st March also
welcome. Contact Lulu on administrator@cathca.co.za
or phone her on 011 880 4022 for more details.
The history of health care
in
Southern Africa
– a Catholic tale
“In
the Service of Healing’ – a history of Catholic health care in Southern
Africa
Orders for this book at
R60 + postage can be sent to Loek at admin@cathca.co.za;
she can also be contacted at 011 880 4022.
Useful
links and articles
The new District Health
Barometer 2010/11 and the South African Health Review 2011 are both now out and
can be downloaded from the Health Systems Trust webpage at www.hst.org.za
2012
Health Calendar
The new health
calendar can also be found on the HST webpage at this link. .http://www.hst.org.za/health-calendar-2012
Green Paper needs
open discussion – comments
on the proposed National Health Insurance by
the Helen Suzman Foundation -
February
13 2012
.
The
South African Department of Health has clearly made significant gains in certain
areas of the health system. However, analysis presents a picture of an
underperforming system in almost every area.
South Africa
spends as much, and in some
cases more, on health care than its peer countries. Yet it is experiencing
poorer health outcomes and a rise in the burden of major diseases, according to
a report by the Helen Suzman Foundation. The report has been submitted to to the
department in response to the recently published National Health Insurance Green
Paper (NHIGP). (The full submission
can be downloaded here)
Redefining
Health Care Downward.
Nat.Catholic
Reporter,
Feb 10
2012
by
Michael J Miller
“The
Church must take decisive action and draw a clear line in the sand. Eventually
the Church will have to say, ‘Enough. We will not be complicit in the
violation of moral law.”
The clash between
the US federal government and Catholic institutions over mandates for
abortifacient contraceptives is not new at state level. Marie T. Hilliard,
Director of Bioethics and Public Policy at the NCBC, wrote an essay three years
ago entitled “Contraceptive Mandates and Immoral Cooperation” about the
moral dilemma posed by such mandates. She shows in a closely reasoned argument
why Catholic institutions cannot simply go along with contraceptive mandates and
write them off as an unfortunate but unintended bad consequence of the good work
of providing health insurance to their employees and warns that ‘by
collaborating, even under protest, with contraceptive and abortifacient
mandates, the Church is paving the way for further government intrusions.”
Life as a Care-leaver in
Kenya
- Stephen
Ucembe , 2011 (Better Care Network newsletter Jan 2012)
Many
CATHCA members care for orphans and vulnerable children in growing numbers. This
article discusses what happens once these children grow up and leave care.
Young
care-leavers who have lived for a long period of time within institutional care
settings apart from their birth families represent a target group of persons
that can be at great risk of poverty and social exclusion. In an effort to
further understand the challenges and problems facing youth leaving
institutional care, Stephen Ucembe conducted research with a group of 19 young
Kenyan care-leavers, drawn from ten different charitable children’s
institutions or rehabilitation centres in order to better understand the social,
emotional and life skills challenges faced by young persons exiting the care
system. Click to View
document
R1
trillion public spending in
South Africa
in 2012/13: What’s in there for health
and HIV/AIDS? CEGAA (Centre for Economic Governance and AIDS in
Africa
) Budget Policy Brief 5 - 23 February 2012 by
Nhlanhla Ndlovu
An excellent and pithy overview of health and
HIV/AIDS allocations in the 2012 budget and government’s key health
priorities. www.cegaa.org/updates
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Subscribe:
CATHCA produces a regular e-mail newsletter called e-NEWS,
with information about current CATHCA activities, new developments in the health
field, courses and conferences, and news about health legislation. If you
wish to subscribe, fill in your details and click on the button marked
"Subscribe" below:
More information
Click on a button on the left for more information about
CATHCA, its history, membership, addresses of clinics and other institutions, structure,
parish nursing programme, staff members,
work with HIV/AIDS, and medicines.
Contact details: CATHCA, P O Box
52015, Saxonwold, 2132
St.
Vincent School for the Deaf,
158 Oxford Road, Melrose, Johannesburg
Telephone: +27 11 880 4022 Fax: +27 11
880 4084
E-mail :
info@cathca.co.za
