Setting up Community Health Programmes in Low and Middle Income Settings

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
Field Workers ◽  
Health Programmes ◽  
Low And Middle Income

The central role of the community and its place in both healthcare planning and service delivery is increasingly seen as a vital foundation for global health. The fourth edition of Setting up Community Health Programmes in Low and Middle Income Settings provides a practical introductory guide to the initiation, management, and sustaining of health care programmes in developing countries. The book has been fully revised to take into account the Millennium Development Goals, Sustainable Development Goals, and Universal Health Coverage. Taking an evidence-based approach the book provides rationales and contextualized examples of health at the community level. Key topics include non-communicable diseases, disability, addiction, abuse and mental health. This book provides a practical guide for community health workers including field workers, programme managers, medical professionals involved in front line health care, administrators, health planners and postgraduate students

Stock-Outs of Essential Medicines Among Community Health Workers (CHWs) In Low- And Middle-Income Countries (LMICs): A Systematic Literature Review of The Extent, Reasons, And Consequences

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abimbola Olaniran ◽  
Jane Briggs ◽  
Ami Pradhan ◽  
Erin Bogue ◽  
Benjamin Schreiber ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Community Level ◽  
Health Centers ◽  
Essential Medicines ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Low And Middle Income

Abstract Background: This paper explores the extent of community-level stock-out of essential medicines among Community Health Workers (CHWs) in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) and identifies the reasons for and consequences of essential medicine stock-outs. Methods: A systematic review following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines was conducted. Five electronic databases were searched with a prespecified strategy and the grey literature examined, January 2006 - March 2021. Papers containing information on (i) the percentage of CHWs stocked out or (ii) reasons for stock-outs along the supply chain and consequences of stock-out were included and appraised for risk of bias. Outcomes were quantitative data on the extent of stock-out, summarized using descriptive statistics, and qualitative data regarding reasons for and consequences of stock-outs, analyzed using thematic content analysis and narrative synthesis. Results: Two reviewers screened 1083 records; 78 evaluations were included. Over the last fifteen years, CHWs experienced stock-outs of essential medicines nearly one third of the time and at a significantly (p < 0.01) higher rate than the health centers to which they are affiliated (28.93% [CI 95%: 28.79 - 29.07] vs 9.17 % [CI 95%: 8.64 - 9.70], respectively). A comparison of the period 2006-2015 and 2016-2021 showed a significant (p < 0.01) increase in CHW stock-out level from 26.36% [CI 95%: 26.22 -26.50] to 48.65% [CI 95%: 48.02- 49.28] while that of health centers increased from 7.79% [95% CI: 7.16 - 8.42] to 14.28% [95% CI: 11.22- 17.34]. Distribution barriers were the most cited reasons for stock-outs. Ultimately, patients were the most affected: stock-outs resulted in out-of-pocket expenses to buy unavailable medicines, poor adherence to medicine regimes, dissatisfaction, and low service utilization. Conclusion: Community-level stock-out of essential medicines constitutes a serious threat to achieving universal health coverage and equitable improvement of health outcomes. This paper suggests stock-outs are getting worse, and that there are particular barriers at the last mile. There is an urgent need to address the health and non-health system constraints that prevent the essential medicines procured for LMICs by international and national stakeholders from reaching the people who need them the most.

Roles for community health workers in diabetes prevention and management in low- and middle-income countries

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Masih A. Babagoli ◽  
Ramfis Nieto-Martínez ◽  
Juan P. González-Rivas ◽  
Kavita Sivaramakrishnan ◽  
Jeffrey I Mechanick
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Disease ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Diabetes Care ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Noncommunicable Disease ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Low And Middle Income

Diabetes prevalence is increasing worldwide, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), posing the need for improved detection and management strategies. Chronic disease models and lifestyle medicine provide structures for action. Community health workers (CHWs) can significantly contribute to chronic disease care if they are trained and integrated into low-resource health systems. Although most current CHWs worldwide are performing maternal/child health and infectious disease-related tasks, other programs involving CHWs for noncommunicable disease prevention and management are increasing. In this article, we discuss the advantages, challenges, and questions regarding possible roles assigned to CHWs in the prevention and management of diabetes. These roles include performing simple screening tests, implementing lifestyle/behavioral interventions, and connecting patients with alternatives to biomedicine. Specifically, CHWs can aid diabetes epidemiological surveillance by conducting risk score-based screening or capillary glucose testing, and they can facilitate diabetes self-management by delivering interventions described in the transcultural diabetes nutrition algorithm. Furthermore, while this role has not formally been assigned, CHWs can leverage their intimate knowledge of local practices to provide decision-making support to patients in environments with pluralistic health systems. Ethnocultural differences in CHW functions and transcultural adaptations of their roles in diabetes care should also be considered. In summary, CHWs can improve diabetes care by screening high-risk individuals and implementing lifestyle interventions, especially in LMIC.

scholarly journals Community Health Workers in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: What Do We Know About Scaling Up and Sustainability?

2013 ◽  
Vol 103 (7) ◽  
pp. e74-e82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Wood Pallas ◽  
Dilpreet Minhas ◽  
Rafael Pérez-Escamilla ◽  
Lauren Taylor ◽  
Leslie Curry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Scaling Up ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Low And Middle Income

Setting Up Community Health Programmes in Low and Middle Income Countries, Fourth Edition, by Ted Lankester and Nathan Grills, Oxford University Press, May 2019

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-158
Author(s):  
Sundeep Manoth ◽  
Bethany Carr
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Health Coverage ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Health And Development ◽  
Low And Middle Income

Universal health coverage is still out of reach for many people in the world and not surprisingly, it is those in rural areas made up of largely poor communities who are the most deprived. Setting Up Community Health and Development Programmes in Low and Middle-Income Settings is a practical tool to guide the process of starting, developing and maintaining a healthcare programme in these areas. Its purpose is to help stakeholders to empower communities to identify and solve their own problems so as to decrease inequality and inequity which remain serious issues in global health. This book also aims to assist academics, policy makers and planners to understand the realities of field-based development and progress. The book has a wide range of contributors with expertise in different areas and they address two main audiences. The first is those working in the field: programme managers, and practitioners from government and civil society involved in setting up or developing community health and development programmes, rural and urban. This book is also written for global health and other health care students, academics, policy makers and planners who wish to anchor their work in field-based situations.

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