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INPUTSAND PROCESSand the feeling provided by the visits of beingcared for and not being isolated (30%), andthe encouragement and hope provided bycounselling (40%). 11% mentioned educationabout HIV/AIDS and the importance of goodhygiene and nutrition as being amongthe most important things about the homecare visits.Participant observations of home carevisits, and focus group discussions with theHCTs revealed that there is a fairly standardset of activities performed by the teams relatedto clinical management, nursing care andcounselling. However, there is an increasingdiversity, both within and across the teams, inactivities related to social support andnon-patient-related activities.Examples of social support activitiesinclude establishing and maintaining supportgroups for PLHA, providing food and money,helping patients to find accommodation andwork, shopping and cooking for bedriddenpatients, doing simple house repairs, referringpatients to other medical services.Examples of activities not directly relatedto patients include liasing with local authorities,religious leaders, community organisations,traditional healers, testing centres,hospitals and health centres, conductingcommunity-based IEC sessions on HIV/AIDS,providing condoms and education to sexworkers, finding homes for orphaned children,visiting families of deceased patients, organisingand attending funerals.The above lists of activities, which are notexhaustive, are provided to illustrate the existing,and increasing, responsibilities beingundertaken by the home care teams, in additionto meeting ongoing needs of patients andfamilies for effective clinical management,nursing care and counselling. There is clearlya limit to which the home care teams cancontinue to meet the increasing expectationsof clients, particularly in view of the increasingclient load as the epidemic expands.It is recommended that the HCNGincludes a module on "Managing ClientExpectations" as part of the ongoing counsellingtraining provided to HCTs.As many of the home care teams are nowworking at their maximum recommendedclient load of 80 patients per team, there is aneed to rationalise the way in which the teamsoperate. One solution may lie in expanding theinvolvement of volunteers in the programme,while another possible approach may be toimprove linkages with social support organisations.These approaches will be exploredfurther in sections 5.10 and 5.11of this report.There is also perhaps a need to re-examinethe balance between the four components ofhome care provision, and to revisit one of theprimary roles of the HCTs which is supportingthe family to address their welfare problemsrather than solving their problems for them. Itis recommended that the Home Care NetworkGroup initiates a review process, in which theroles and responsibilities of the Home CareTeams are re-examined and rationalised, andstrategic priorities are agreed.It is recommended that the HCNG initiatesa review process to clarify and agreestrategic priorities for home care activitiesand to rationalise the roles and responsibilitiesof the Home Care Teams.pg 49