As the National Medical Commission (NMC) plans to introduce the family adoption programme (FAP) as part of MBBS curriculum to improve healthcare in rural areas, the Department of Community Medicine at the Government Medical College, Alappuzha, finds it validation for its own half-a-decade-old initiative of MBBS students adopting village families to take care of their health needs.
The NMC proposal makes it mandatory for MBBS students from the first year to adopt around five families. The Department of Community Medicine at the medical college has been running a similar programme FRIENDS.COM (Family visits Regular for Insight and Empathy to Needs and Diseases in Society. Community Orientation for Medical Students), where two to three MBBS students are assigned to an adopted family.
Ever since the start of the programme in 2016, the department is adopting between 50 and 60 families in the district every year. As part of FRIENDS.COM, students visit families of bedridden patients or people having chronic illnesses at regular intervals. They establish rapport and identify the physical, psychosocial, emotional needs of individuals and caregivers and prepare a care plan for individuals and families and follow them up.
