Healthcare services are provided to forest staff and their families

a. Forest staff

Preventive health check-up

Objectives

• To preserve and promote good health, to prevent disease and disability and to facilitate early diagnosis and treatment of illnesses.
• To detect prevalence of diseases including non-communicable diseases (NCD) e.g. hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, and carcinomas.
• To provide timely advice and treatment to improve efficiency and morale of the field staff.

Why preventive health check-up:

A person may apparently appear to be healthy but can have a serious health condition with no signs and symptoms. Early detection and treatment of the health problems is vital, as ignorance or failure to detect may lead to morbidity.

Detecting and treating a disease in early stages is relatively easy, requires simple interventions and is less resource intensive, whereas managing the effects of an advance disease can be difficult and in some cases impossible.

Preventive care includes immunization, regular health check-ups and laboratory tests, which help early detection of health problems.

Rationale:

Tendency to skip routine examinations due to remoteness and the cost involved lead to deterioration in health of the field staff, which can have serious consequences. The uninsured staff is more likely to miss the healthcare services due to the costs involved.

Advances in technology over the past couple of decades have improved the probability of early detection of potentially serious health conditions many folds. These results coupled with accurate diagnosis help to provide better advice for maintaining the optimum health of a person.

b. Family members of the forest staff

Women

General health check-up along with services related to reproductive and sexual health are provided during the camps. Health education is provided on prevention of infections, importance of antenatal check-up, institutional delivery, immunization, family planning methods, among others. Cervical cytology (pap smear) is done to screen women for cervical cancer whereas breast self examination is taught for screening oneself for breast cancer.

Children

Growth monitoring of the children under five years of age to assess the nutritional status, vitamin deficiencies, immunization status is undertaken along with provision of general curative services. Interventions are designed to address health conditions like anaemia, malnutrition, vitamin deficiencies, worm infestation, among others. Health education to mothers on breast feeding practices, nutrition supplementation, management of diarrhea and recognising potentially dangerous signs of health condition that could metamorphose into an emergency in future is provided.

c. Follow-up and referral services

Staff and family members requiring long term treatment are referred to appropriate facilities in the nearest town or city.

Protected Areas where staff health camps have been conducted

WCT-HKF health interventions
No.	Protected Areas
1	Bandhavgarh
2	Bandipur
3	Kanha
4	Melghat
5	Panna
6	Pench (Maharashtra)
7	Pench (M.P)
8	Periyar
9	Tadoba-Andhari
10	Sariska
11	Ranthambhore

A Forester being examined at a WCT/HKF diagnostic camp at the Nagzira Wildlife Sanctuary, Maharashtra