scholarly journals The status of Ghanaian community health workers’ supervision and service delivery: descriptive analyses from the 2017 Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020 survey

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1468
Author(s):  
Dan Schwarz ◽  
June-Ho Kim ◽  
Hannah Ratcliffe ◽  
John Koku Awoonor-Williams ◽  
Belinda Nimako ◽  
...  

Introduction: Community-based services are a critical component of high-quality primary healthcare. Ghana formally launched the National Community Health Worker (CHW) program in 2014, to augment the pre-existing Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS). To date, however, there is scant data about the program’s implementation. We describe the current supervision and service delivery status of CHWs throughout the country. Methods: Data were collected regarding CHW supervision and service delivery during the 2017 round of the Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020 survey. Descriptive analyses were performed by facility type, supervisor type, service delivery type, and regional distribution. Results: Over 80% of CHWs had at least monthly supervision interactions, but there was variability in the frequency of interactions. Frequency of supervision interactions did not vary by facility or supervisor type. The types of services delivered by CHWs varied greatly by facility type and region. Community mobilization, health education, and outreach for loss-to-follow-up were delivered by over three quarters of CHWs, while mental health counseling and postnatal care are provided by fewer than one third of CHWs. The Western region and Greater Accra had especially low rates of CHW service provision. Non-communicable disease treatment, which is not included in the national guidelines, was reportedly provided by some CHWs in nine out of ten regions. Conclusions: Overall, this study demonstrates variability in supervision frequency and CHW activities. A high proportion of CHWs already meet the expected frequency of supervision. Meanwhile, there are substantial differences by region of CHW service provision, which requires further research, particularly on novel CHW services such as non-communicable disease treatment. While there are important limitations to these data, these findings can be instructive for Ghanaian policymakers and implementers to target improvement initiatives for community-based services.

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1468
Author(s):  
Dan Schwarz ◽  
June-Ho Kim ◽  
Hannah Ratcliffe ◽  
Griffith Bell ◽  
John Koku Awoonor-Williams ◽  
...  

Introduction: Community-based services are a critical component of high-quality primary healthcare. Ghana formally launched the National Community Health Worker (CHW) program in 2014, to augment the pre-existing Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS). To date, however, there is scant data about the program’s implementation. We describe the current supervision and service delivery status of CHWs throughout the country. Methods: Data were collected regarding CHW supervision and service delivery during the 2017 round of the Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020 survey. Descriptive analyses were performed by facility type, supervisor type, service delivery type, and regional distribution. Results: Over 80% of CHWs had at least monthly supervision interactions, but there was variability in the frequency of interactions. Frequency of supervision interactions did not vary by facility or supervisor type. The types of services delivered by CHWs varied greatly by facility type and region. Community mobilization, health education, and outreach for loss-to-follow-up were delivered by over three quarters of CHWs, while mental health counseling and postnatal care are provided by fewer than one third of CHWs. The Western region and Greater Accra had especially low rates of CHW service provision. Non-communicable disease treatment, which is not included in the national guidelines, was reportedly provided by some CHWs in nine out of ten regions. Conclusions: Overall, this study demonstrates variability in supervision frequency and CHW activities. A high proportion of CHWs already meet the expected frequency of supervision. Meanwhile, there are substantial differences by region of CHW service provision, which requires further research, particularly on novel CHW services such as non-communicable disease treatment. While there are important limitations to these data, these findings can be instructive for Ghanaian policymakers and implementers to target improvement initiatives for community-based services.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1468
Author(s):  
Dan Schwarz ◽  
June-Ho Kim ◽  
Hannah Ratcliffe ◽  
Griffith Bell ◽  
John Koku Awoonor-Williams ◽  
...  

Introduction: Community-based services are a critical component of high-quality primary healthcare. Ghana formally launched the National Community Health Worker (CHW) program in 2014, to augment the pre-existing Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS). To date, however, there is scant data about the program’s implementation. We describe the current supervision and service delivery status of CHWs throughout the country. Methods: Data were collected regarding CHW supervision and service delivery during the 2017 round of the Performance Monitoring and Accountability 2020 survey. Descriptive analyses were performed by facility type, supervisor type, service delivery type, and regional distribution. Results: Over 80% of CHWs had at least monthly supervision interactions, but there was variability in the frequency of interactions. Frequency of supervision interactions did not vary by facility or supervisor type. The types of services delivered by CHWs varied greatly by facility type and region. Community mobilization, health education, and outreach for loss-to-follow-up were delivered by over three quarters of CHWs, while mental health counseling and postnatal care are provided by fewer than one third of CHWs. The Western region and Greater Accra had especially low rates of CHW service provision. Non-communicable disease treatment, which is not included in the national guidelines, was reportedly provided by some CHWs in nine out of ten regions. Conclusions: Overall, this study demonstrates variability in supervision frequency and CHW activities. A high proportion of CHWs already meet the expected frequency of supervision. Meanwhile, there are substantial differences by region of CHW service provision, which requires further research, particularly on novel CHW services such as non-communicable disease treatment. While there are important limitations to these data, these findings can be instructive for Ghanaian policymakers and implementers to target improvement initiatives for community-based services.


2021 ◽  
pp. 073346482110125
Author(s):  
Lawrence Schonfeld ◽  
Jesse Bell ◽  
Mary Goldsworthy ◽  
Kevin Kip ◽  
Amber M. Gum ◽  
...  

The National Aging Network serves millions of older Americans seeking home- and community-based services, but places others on waitlists due to limited resources. Little is known about how states determine service delivery and waitlists. We therefore conducted a process evaluation and analyzed data from one five-county Area Agency on Aging in Florida, where an algorithm calculates clients’ priority scores for service delivery. From 23,225 screenings over 5.5 years, clients with higher priority scores were older, married, living with caregivers, and had more health problems and needs for assistance. Approximately 51% received services (e.g., meals/nutrition, case management, caregiver support), 11% were eligible/being enrolled, and 38% remained on waitlists. Service status was complex due to multiple service enrollments and terminations, funding priorities, and transfers to third-party providers. More research is needed regarding how other states determine eligibility and deliver services, potentially informing national standards that promote optimal health in older Americans.


2018 ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Rieski Prihastuti ◽  
Trisno Agung Wibowo ◽  
Misinem Misinem

Purpose: Non-communicable diseases are leading cause of the global death, especially from cardiovascular disease, cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and diabetes. Prevention and primary detection of non-communicable disease in Indonesia were done through integrated community-based intervention called ‘Posbindu PTM’. Implementation of ‘Posbindu PTM’ needed to be evaluated to determine each component in the non-communicable disease surveillance systems. Methods: This study was descriptive. Respondent were programmer in district health office and programmer in 24 primary health care in Wonosobo. Surveillance system evaluation that used was programs evaluation based on WHO (structure, main function, support function and quality of surveillance system). Results: The weakness of ‘Posbindu PTM’ in Wonosobo were lack of knowledge in the regulation, networking, collaborating, risk factor detecting and reporting; not availability of technical guidebook; low training participant; low monitoring and evaluation activity; also complex reporting system. There was 84% ‘Posbindu PTM’ that had not reported on time and 87,50 % programmer had not done the analysis, interpretation, and dissemination. This was related to the completeness of the report caused too many data that needed to be collected and affect the timeliness of the report. Conclusion: Strengthening ‘Posbindu PTM’ should be done in the reporting system aspect, especially in the timeliness and analysis of the report. Monthly reminder and refreshing in reporting system were done to improve the reporting system aspect.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaideep Menon ◽  
Mathews Numpeli ◽  
Sajeev.P. Kunjan ◽  
Beena.V. Karimbuvayilil ◽  
Aswathy Sreedevi ◽  
...  

UNSTRUCTURED Abstract: India has a massive non-communicable disease (NCD) burden at an enormous cost to the individual, family, society and health system at large, in spite of which prevention and surveillance is relatively neglected. Risk factors for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease if diagnosed early and treated adequately would help decrease the mortality and morbidity burden. India is in a stage of rapid epidemiological transition with the state of Kerala being at the forefront, pointing us towards likely disease burden and outcomes for the rest of the country, in the future. A previous study done by the same investigators, in a population of >100,000, revealed poor awareness and treatment of NCDs and also poor adherence to medicines in individuals with CVD. The investigators are looking at a sustainable, community based model of surveillance for NCDs with corporate support wherein frontline health workers check all individuals in the target group ( > age 30 years) with further follow up and treatment planned in a “spoke and hub” model using the public health system of primary health centres (PHCs) as spokes to the hubs of Taluk or District hospitals. All data entry done by frontline health workers would be on a Tab PC ensuring rapid acquisition and transfer of participant health details to PHCs for further follow up and treatment. The model will be evaluated based on the utilisation rate of various services offered at all tier levels. The proportions of the target population screened, eligible individuals who reached the spoke or hub centres for risk stratification and care and community level control for hypertension and diabetes in annual surveys will be used as indicator variables. The model ensures diagnosis and follow up treatment at no cost to the individual entirely through the tiered public health system of the state and country.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 239920261987322
Author(s):  
BMR Fernandopulle ◽  
Nalika Gunawardena ◽  
SHP de Silva ◽  
Chinta Abayawardana ◽  
LK Hirimuthugoda

Introduction: In Sri Lanka in 2013, 16 medicines were identified as priority to manage non-communicable disease (NCD), and in 2017, 48 NCD medicines were price-regulated. Objective: The aim of the present study was to describe the experiences on availability of drugs and out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) for drugs among patients with NCDs in Sri Lanka. Methods: This community-based, household survey was conducted in nine districts of the country. The survey included 1100 adults (aged 50 years and above) with a diagnosis of NCD for 5 years. They were interviewed by trained pharmacy students. Results: Approximately 66%, 49% and 21.6% suffering from hypertension, diabetes and ischaemic heart disease, respectively, with a majority having more than one NCD. The evidence showed that prescribers align to drugs that have been recognized to be made more available and more affordable. Of all, 14% had prescriptions with all NCD medicines classified in the list, while 40% had only one or two of the drugs prescribed which are not in the list. Most of the prescribed drugs were also included in the price regulation – with 29% having all medicines included, while 31.6% having only one or two drugs prescribed out of the list. Approximately, two-thirds (64.2%) had exclusively used government hospitals for NCD care during the past 5 years. A majority (58.3%) had all prescribed drugs available at the last visit to the state sector clinic, while almost all of the others (35.7%) had some of the drugs available. Conclusion: The study concluded that patient experiences in Sri Lanka showed good availability and access to NCD medicines in Sri Lanka.


2020 ◽  
Vol 114 (4) ◽  
pp. 229-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Baiden

Abstract Primary healthcare (PHC) meets the needs of people's health throughout their lives and empowers individuals and communities to oversee their own health. Most of the community-based activities currently undertaken in PHC in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) address child and maternal health. Non-communicable diseases are now major causes of morbidity and premature mortality in SSA. In this paper, I propose the formal integration of community-based, non-communicable disease prevention and early detection into PHC activities. I offer practical suggestions on how this can be achieved to ensure a continuum of care.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document