Annual Report 2006

The third year of the Early Childhood and Healthy Adolescence Program had been very interesting and dynamic for very many reasons. During 2006 our team had many learning-experiences, other than the significant achievements through strengthening and intensifying ongoing programs to promote early childhood development through iodized-salt distribution, the home garden program and capacity building for the community out-reach team and staff of other organizations. Some of the learning points were: the joy and effectiveness of working with children groups (buddy-teams), advantage of addressing micro-nutrient deficiency by targeting pregnant and lactating mothers, challenges in promoting „parent associations? and involving traditional healers and the importance of reaching larger audience through popular media. The school-based work was carried out intensively with the active participation of teachers and teacher trainees not only in Kandal province but also in Battambang province, one of our out-reach areas.

Annual Report 2005 Centre

The year 2005 had been unique in terms of institutional growth and capacity building for the Caritas-CCAMH team. Ms. Sok Dearozet the psychologist working at the center went to India and Singapore for seven months to come back with enriched knowledge and experience. Mr. Kim Rattana and Ms. Sok Phaneth visited SETI-center, Caritas-Egypt along with Dr. J.Bhoomikumar to understand Caritas-Egypt?s involvement in developmental disability sector. Building a play facility exclusively for children with intellectual disability, establishing the early-stimulation unit, net working and coordination with agencies both inside and outside Cambodia, celebrating the breast-feeding promotion day, sharing the achievements and challenges with the rest of the Caritas team, visit of Patch Adams team, the “clown doctors” to our center were some of the highlights, other than the regular clinical service program at the center. While the referrals from the partners in disability sector such as National Center for Disabled Persons (NCDP), Cambodia Trust (CT) and Veterans International (VI) has increased, the clients seeking help at Battambang has reached a new high.

Annual Report 2005 Community

The highlights of the community based child and adolescent mental health during the year 2005 are: following up the awareness building exercise with action programs in the community, setting-up registers for data-management at community level, distribution of seeds for home garden during the monsoon, sharing the achievements and challenges with the rest of the Caritas team and taking the issue of prevention of needless disability to the national level. Despite the late onset of monsoon and delay in promoting the home garden program, Caritas-CCMH team achieved immense results with people’s participation The women groups enthusiastically promoted home garden program after the series of social communication process by the Caritas-CCAMH team. Our team successfully highlighted the issue of prevention of needless disability during the International Disability day on 3rd December 2005.

Annual Report 2004

Strengthening and intensifying the community and school based program, establishing clinical and logistics management committees towards sustaining the quality of services rendered at the clinic, increased liaison and net working among the partners at various levels, strategic planning of human resource development prioritizing client needs, establishing contact with the embassies in Phnom Penh, felicitating the senior members of the staff, publication of the literature on child mental health issues in the media are the highlights of the Caritas-CCMH program during the year 2004. The team at Center for Child Mental Health (Caritas-CCMH)has represented Cambodia successfully at the workshop on Human Rights of Marginalized Disability Groups at Bangkok. The partnership and close cooperation with international organizations such as Japan League on Intellectual Disabilities (JLID), Japan, Asia Pacific Development Center on Disability (APCD), Bangkok, was beneficial, facilitating professional exchange and enhancement of knowledge-base of the team.

Annual Report 2003

Consulting stake-holders at all levels towards „Evaluation and Strategic Planning? vis-a-vis National Mental Health Plan, staff appraisal and strengthening organizational structure towards sustainability of services, incorporating continuing professional development (CPD) into service conditions, initiating a consultative process with the village level volunteers, and establishing various working groups within the Caritas-CCMH team to constantly update and monitor the quality of services rendered at the center are the highlights of the Caritas-CCMH program during the year 2004. The team at Center for Child Mental Health (Caritas-CCMH) has successfully attempted the concept of “Learning Organization“ in „Child and Adolescent Child Mental Health Service (CAMHS) setting? by actively involving all the team members sans hierarchy to learn from each other at workplace and constantly feedback into the „management information system?, that guaranties quality service to the children and adolescents. Caritas-CCMH has worked in close cooperation with international organizations such as Japan League on Intellectual Disabilities (JLID), Japan and regional networking organization such as Asia Pacific Center on Disability (APCD), based in Bangkok during this year to impress upon the needs and rights of children with psychiatric and intellectual disabilities. Involving parents in decision making in the affairs of service provision and hospital management to create a „sense of ownership? on the part of the clients is one of the most important task that we had begun this year and we plan to travel further along in this direction during the coming years.