scholarly journals Training and Evaluation of Community Health Workers (CHWs): Towards Improving Maternal and Newborn Survival in an Urban Setting in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 406-413
Author(s):  
Thoko Ndaba ◽  
Myra Taylor ◽  
Musawenkosi Mabaso
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Kwazulu Natal ◽  
Post Test ◽  
At Home

Background: In South Africa, Community Health Workers (CHWs) are a key component of community outreach teams as part of Primary Health Care (PHC) re-engineering. Although the value of CHW programs has been increasingly recognized, published evaluations of CHWs’ training programs are rare. This study documents the training and evaluation of CHWs on maternal and neonatal care towards improved maternal-newborn survival in an impoverished urban setting in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Methods: Using a descriptive study design, CHWs were trained to do home visits, assess and support the mother to settle in well at home post-discharge, check on babies’ warmth, cord care, breastfeeding, basic hygiene, size of the baby if underweight and advise on Kangaroo mother care. They were also trained to check if the mothers were given the Road to Health card and to inquire about the immunization and subsequent follow-up visits to the PHC, and encourage mothers to adhere to their follow up dates at PHC clinics. Pre-and post-test scores, shadow visits, and spot checks were used to evaluate their performance. Results: Generally, CHWs (n=47) from all three PHC clinics performed well. Overall, the highest post-test score among the PHC CHWs was 72% and the lowest was 50%. On average during shadow visits 67% CHWs were rated as good, 2% were rated as poor, and most CHWs received the highest score at 92% during spot checks. Conclusion: CHWs demonstrated social commitment and purpose in the short term observed. The evaluation of the training of CHWs revealed that most demonstrated the necessary skills for referrals to prevent complications, caring for newborns and their mothers at home immediately after discharge from health care centers. CHW upskilling training on maternal-newborn services should be prioritized in the most affected areas.

scholarly journals Effect of supervision and education on community health workers performance in the field of primary health care

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 437
Author(s):  
Seyede Sakine Hasani Ziabari ◽  
Sareh Shakerian
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Reform Plan ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Effective Supervision

Background: Effective supervision strategies help to address the challenges unique to community health workers (CHWs) or Behvarz and improve poor practices. Current research is comparing situation of two supervisors group on performance of CHWs in Lahijan city.Methods: This study was done through a quasi-experimental method in which with census it was considered through pre and post-test after education, then the statistical society was divided through systematic random sampling method and was supervised by two supervisor groups (health care providers and headquarters experts) and their situation were compared using the standard performance checklist in 10 primary healthcare fields for a four month period.Results: Education section showed that 120 CHWs of statistical society, 56 CHWs of capability (in pre-test) answered 70% of questions correctly and in post-test 83 CHWs have answered to 70% of questions correctly and totally it shows 34% of enhancement. Result of in performance section showed that 63% CHWs under supervision of health care providers could have performance higher than 70% in 10 fields. Also result showed that 73% CHWs supervised by headquarter experts could have performance higher than 70% in 10 fields.Conclusions: The effect of the education and supervision on the performance increased although with little difference in the two groups of observers. It can be concluded that the only field that is fully specialized after the implementation of Health Reform Plan is the field of pregnant mothers who provide services to this highly specialized group through midwives. 

scholarly journals An analysis of the services provided by Community Health Workers within an urban district in South Africa: a key contribution towards universal access to care.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leena Susan Thomas ◽  
Eric Buch ◽  
Yogan Pillay
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Access To Care ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Health Worker ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Community Health Worker ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Early Screening

Abstract Introduction: Community health worker teams are potential game-changers in ensuring access to care in vulnerable communities. Who are they? What do they actually do? Can they help South Africa realize universal health coverage? As the proactive arm of the health services, community health workers teams provide household and community education, early screening, tracing and referrals for a range of health and social services. There is little local or global evidence on the household services provided by such teams, beyond specific disease-oriented activities such as for HIV and TB. This paper seeks to address this gap.Methods: Descriptive secondary data analysis of community health worker team activities in the Ekurhuleni health district, South Africa covering approximately 280 000 households with one million people. Results: Study findings illustrated that community health workers in these teams provided early screening and referrals for pregnant women and children under five. They distributed condoms and chronic medication to homes. They screened and referred for hypertension, diabetes mellitus, HIV and TB. The teams also undertook defaulter and contact tracing, the majority of which was for HIV & TB clients. Psychosocial support provided was in the form of access to social grants, access to child and gender-based violence protection services, food parcels and other services.Conclusion: Community Health Workers form the core of these teams and perform several health and psychosocial services in households and poor communities in South Africa, in addition to general health education. The teams studied provided a range of activities across many health conditions (mother & child related, HIV & TB, non-communicable diseases), as well as social services. These teams provided comprehensive care in a large-scale urban setting and can improve access to care.

scholarly journals An analysis of the services provided by community health workers within an urban district in South Africa: a key contribution towards universal access to care

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
L. S. Thomas ◽  
E. Buch ◽  
Y. Pillay
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Access To Care ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Health Worker ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Community Health Worker ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Early Screening

Abstract Introduction Community health worker teams are potential game-changers in ensuring access to care in vulnerable communities. Who are they? What do they actually do? Can they help South Africa realize universal health coverage? As the proactive arm of the health services, community health workers teams provide household and community education, early screening, tracing and referrals for a range of health and social services. There is little local or global evidence on the household services provided by such teams, beyond specific disease-oriented activities such as for HIV and TB. This paper seeks to address this gap. Methods Descriptive secondary data analysis of community health worker team activities in the Ekurhuleni health district, South Africa covering approximately 280,000 households with 1 million people. Results Study findings illustrated that community health workers in these teams provided early screening and referrals for pregnant women and children under five. They distributed condoms and chronic medication to homes. They screened and referred for hypertension, diabetes mellitus, HIV and TB. The teams also undertook defaulter and contact tracing, the majority of which was for HIV and TB clients. Psychosocial support provided was in the form of access to social grants, access to child and gender-based violence protection services, food parcels and other services. Conclusion Community health workers form the core of these teams and perform several health and psychosocial services in households and poor communities in South Africa, in addition to general health education. The teams studied provided a range of activities across many health conditions (mother and child related, HIV and TB, non-communicable diseases), as well as social services. These teams provided comprehensive care in a large-scale urban setting and can improve access to care.

scholarly journals Community Health Workers Can Strengthen Isoniazid Preventive Therapy Implementation in Rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. S119-S119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Norton ◽  
Anthony Moll ◽  
Jabulile Madi ◽  
Nkazi Nkomo ◽  
Ralph Brooks ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Preventive Therapy ◽  
Isoniazid Preventive Therapy ◽  
Kwazulu Natal

scholarly journals Reminder use to improve service referral use among participants in a community engagement program (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepthi Satheesa Varma ◽  
Mark W. Hart ◽  
Denise S. McIntyre ◽  
Evan K Kwiatkowski ◽  
Linda B. Cottler
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Mobile Phone ◽  
Community Engagement ◽  
Community Health ◽  
Community Health Workers ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Baseline Assessment ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Service Referral

BACKGROUND Recent research on health care delivery has shown that mobile based interventions are effective in bringing behavior change among clinical populations. Mobile phone-based interventions are considered to be convenient and economical to the provider and non-invasive and hence acceptable to the receiver. Studies have also shown that personalized text message reminders are more acceptable and effective than automated mass messages. However, despite the increasing literature on mobile phone-based interventions (mHealth) contributing to improvement in health care, there is a dearth of information on the use of reminders for social and medical service referrals provided to nonclinical populations by community-engagement programs. OBJECTIVE This pilot study aimed to apply mobile phone-based interventions to improve the utilization rates of medical and social service referrals provided to community members by Community Health Workers (CHW’s) through HealthStreet – a community engagement initiative at the University of Florida (UF). METHODS 300 eligible HealthStreet members were randomly assigned to CALLSONLY, TEXTONLY, CALLS+TEXT reminder intervention groups. Reminders were sent based on their assignment on the 15th and 45th day after the baseline assessment reminding them to utilize the medical and/or social referrals that were provided by the community health workers based on their expressed need during the baseline assessment. A telephonic follow up was done on the 30th and 60th day to assess the rate of utilization of the referrals. Further, a telephone based brief satisfaction survey was also administered to all participants on the 60th day follow up call. RESULTS Out of 290 participants, 201 (69.3%) successfully completed the 30-day HealthStreet follow up and 149 (51.4%) participants successfully completed the 60-day HealthStreet follow up. At the 30-day follow up, 52 of the 201 respondents reported the use of at least one referral and there were no differences for utilization by contact status. At the 60-day follow up, 69 of the 149 participants reported utilizing at least one referral; there were no differences for this group either. CONCLUSIONS Findings from this study did not find any significant difference in the rate of service referral utilization between participants who received different types of reminders. The absence of a significant difference between the two groups may be because of the smaller sample size of the study.

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