Health visitors welcome international visitor
Coventry health visitors welcomed a Bulgarian family care expert to the city last week, to learn more about how to improve services for local people.
The visit, by a health professional from the Bulgarian city of Sliven, was part of an exchange set up by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UK Institute of Health Visiting.
Lilka Koleva is Team Leader of a new Home Visiting Service based at the Centre for Mothers and Children’s Health, and she spent a few days in the city, visiting services and meeting health visitors out and about on their duties in the city.
Coventry staff, who are part of the extensive community health service provided by Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust, have already been to visit the service in Sliven for themselves, as part of an exchange visit which is designed to help spread good practice and international learning for professionals in the field.
Explained Carmen Baskerville, specialist health visitor and infant feeding lead for the service in Coventry: “It was interesting to hear how services are organised in Bulgaria, and that they face many of the same issues as we do here in Coventry, in trying to help make sure that all children get a good, healthy start in life.
“Services are provided differently there, but we were able to show how we respond
to the needs that parents and children report, and how we work with other agencies in order to improve health in the city.”
Part of the visit included a trip to Coventry Central Foodbank in Foleshill, which supports anyone in the community who faces going hungry.
Carmen said: “The Foodbank do a great job providing a vital local service for people in crisis. They are just one of a range of community bodies and other agencies we work with to provide practical help to families, to support them to stay healthy.”
The Coventry service recently achieved prestigious international recognition from UNICEF, awarded in light of the quality of the health visiting service available in the city.