Community Therapeutic Care
Concern, in association with Valid International, has pioneered a new approach to dealing with acute malnutrition. This approach, called community therapeutic care (CTC), has proved to be extremely effective, so much so that it is now becoming the preferred approach to tackling malnutrition.
Before the development of CTC, the traditional way of treating malnutrition was through therapeutic feeding centres: large centres where patients are admitted for an average of 30 days. Carers of malnourished children often have to travel long distances to access these centres, many having to leave the rest of their children at home for three weeks or longer.
Treating people in their own homes
The central principle of CTC is to treat malnourished children in their homes, rather then having them travel for miles for help. As a result, it inevitably reaches more people than the traditional centre-based schemes. A recent survey in Malawi showed that Concern’s CTC programme has been able to reach three out of four people in need, whereas a traditional feeding programme in an adjacent region is only reaching around one in four.
Ready-to-use food
Children who have been admitted to a CTC programme are provided with weekly medical treatment and given one week's supply of therapeutic food to take home. This vitamin-enriched food, called ready-to-use-therapeutic-food, is central to the success of CTC. As it is oil-based, it has a huge advantage over traditional water-based mixtures. Even someone with no access to clean water can use it to nurse a malnourished child back to health.
Quality care
A family whose child is attending Concern’s CTC programme will also get visits every week from community volunteers and local Concern outreach staff. This way the child’s health is monitored, and the family is given tips on everything from breast feeding to personal hygiene. Emily Mates, Concern’s CTC programme support officer in Ethiopia, says that “Concern’s approach is about more than just feeding the starved. It’s also about building up the community’s infrastructure – giving it the built-in ability to handle, and maybe even avoid, that next big famine threat.”
Wider acceptance
The success of the CTC approach has recently become more widely recognised. A number of UN organisations have now committed to using CTC. They have also recommended that governments should incorporate CTC into their health and nutrition policies. Tom Arnold, CEO of Concern, has said “This is a significant achievement and a tribute to the hard work of many people in Concern and Valid, as well as the other organisations who have also been associated along the way.” Together, he says, they have “helped change the way the world deals with severe malnutrition – and, in so doing, are helping to save thousands of lives.”
- Click here to read a report about the thinking behind the "scale-up" in CTC use
- Concern worked with Valid International on the development of CTC. Visit the Valid site here
