"I am grateful that I was given the chance to communicate with my home visiting nurse, even from a distance. I know that despite the difficult situation with Covid-19 I can always rely on her help and advice with respect to the health and well-being of my child.” That is what the 19-year-old Hrisi, one of the 60 mothers included in the home-visiting service Nurse-Family Partnership Program in Sofia, thinks about the help she received under the project. Hrisi was given a tablet connected to the Internet through which she could be in touch with her home visiting nurse all the time. The Covid-19 pandemic required adaptations to the home-visiting services - health advice and parenting guidelines – which had to be provided remotely. "For me, home visits are of invaluable help and I'm glad that even in a Covid-19 situation there are alternative ways through which these services can be provided," the young mother said. Hrisi is raising her one-and-a-half-year-old boy on her own.
Vulnerable young women included in the home-visiting service of TSA received tablets with Internet connection in the beginning of 2021 under the project "Home-visiting services for vulnerable mothers - provided remotely instead of face-to face", which ended on May 31, 2021. The project was funded by Sofia Municipality’s Program "Crisis as an opportunity”, administered by the Sofia Development Association.
Under the project the home-visiting nurses provided a total of 384 online consultations which in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic replaced the actual home visits for a period of 4 months. Although the service was delivered remotely, the video connection gave the nurses the chance to use techniques or visual aids for improving their communication with the mothers.
In addition to making possible the continuous contact between the young women and the family nurses with a view to receiving health advice and parenting guidance, the devices have helped several of our users to improve their educational level or to engage in activities related to their personal development.
Some examples:
· Rossi, 20, a mother of an one-and-a-half-year old boy, enrolled in 12th grade in an individual form of education. After she received a tablet under the project, she created her own email address, gained access to the educational platform Уча.се (https://ucha.se/) and is successfully preparing for her lessons and exams;
· Sonya, 17, a mother of a 9-month-old baby. After she received a tablet under the project she signed up for free online English lessons organized by TSA;
· Esmeralda, 20, a mother of a 2-year-old girl. After she received a tablet under the project she became a blogger under one of the TSA initiatives part of the international project "Covid-19 and the Other Front". You can read one of her blog posts here.
In the long run, the project has created conditions for the sustainable delivery of the NFP Program service in the conditions of a crises. Once the families receive mobile devices and get used to using them, they will be encouraged and supported to continue using them for the purpose of receiving home-visiting care, especially in the event of new waves of Covid-19.