Ellis-Hadwin Health Legacy in Nigeria
Integrated Community Case Management (ICCM) and Nutrition Integration
Almost three quarters of deaths in children below five years are caused by preventable diseases namely, pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria and new-born conditions with malnutrition being the underlying cause of over one third of these deaths.
Increasing evidence support, a strategy of Integrated Community Case Management (ICCM), extends the case management of childhood illnesses beyond health facilities, in order for more children to have access to treatment, thus ultimately, reducing child deaths.
ICCM allows Community Health Workers (CHWs) to treat children for diarrhoea, pneumonia and malaria as well as identifying children with severe acute malnutrition.
The Ellis-Hadwin Health Legacy is helping to strengthen the integration of nutrition into an ongoing and UKAM funded ICCM project dubbed Partnership for Improved Child Health (PICH) in four local government areas in Nigeria.
Through this integration, the project aims:
- To increase coverage and delivery of nutrition services from community service providers (community oriented resource persons and lower level health facilities);
- To strengthen referral pathways and co-ordination of nutritional services in the 4 target local governments;
- To promote the knowledge and uptake of appropriate nutrition practices and services by households.
Find out more about our work in Nigeria