Maternal and Child Health is the Rotary International theme of the month April, so onn April 5 our member Tamara Thorn shared her personal experience and worries about the mental health of young people. She is working  with young people and is concerned by the lack of mental care  for teenagers. She worries that the absence of care will lead to bigger problems in the future. Nearly every source of misbehavior can be linked to untreated mental health issues with youth. Tamara calls it the Silent Epidemic. She called upon Rotarians to look out for incidents in their communities. To work together with schools, doctors and other organizations to help the young people and their families.

I visited an Intensive Care section in a children’s hospital in Argentina in October 2024. The hospital lacked skilled nurses and incubators. I was shocked to see that the nurses moved babies from the incubators to cradles when a child arrived that needed the most urgent care, because they lacked an extra incubator.

 

About 10 years back, I visited my nephew at the intensive care unit in a Dutch hospital. We needed to wear special aprons, masks, and gloves before entering the department. The whole area was full with
machinery. I heard beeps, saw life support machines and babies lying in the incubators. The nurses were sitting behind monitors and overlooked all beds at the unit. I was impressed about the atmosphere. In a way a very calming area and at the same time an area at full alert. Nurses moved without making noise, they talked in a calm manner. Although it is a long time ago I still remember this image very vividly.

 

Being in Argentina and witnessing an intensive care unit without the necessary tools made a lasting impression on me, and this month’s theme brings back the sad memories of how young children fight for their lives and how parents look hopefully to the nurses and doctors, who may not have the necessary resources. I hope we, as Rotarians, continue to contribute to maternal and child health.