Training Health Workers on Early Childhood Development in Quang Ninh Province

With an invitation from the Quang Ninh Provincial Center for Disease Control (CDC), the Research and Training Center for Community Development (RTCCD) conducted an in-person training course on Early Childhood Development in the First 5 Years of Life on July 10-11, 2024. The training was delivered to health workers from the provincial CDC, district health centres, and 56 communes with ethnic minority groups.

The training course aimed to provide health workers with an understanding of early childhood development from pregnancy to five years of age, including the nurturing care framework and child development milestones, risk and protective factors to child growth and development. It also focused on developing skills for conducting interpersonal counseling and group-based facilitated counseling sessions, using the Early Journey of Life education material and practice kits. The training targeted frontline maternal and child health workers who directly interact with children and their families.

Additionally, the training provided health workers with skills to screen child psychosocial development using a checklist based on the Ministry of Health’s national guidelines (Decision No. 40/QD-MOH) issued in January 2023. The trainer team encouraged frontline health workers to integrate group-based counseling sessions with the monthly immunization sessions for children.

A total of 134 health workers from the provincial, district, and commune levels participated in the 2-day course. After the training, the provincial CDC will oversee planning and allocate the provincial budget to implement child assessment and parenting education sessions in 56 communes in the mountainous region (under project #7 of the national program) of Quang Ninh province.

Below are images of the training course activities: