scholarly journals School health services in Enugu East, Nigeria: perspectives from a resourcepoor setting

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adaobi I. Bisi-Onyemaechi ◽  
Afonne N. Akani ◽  
Anthony N. Ikefuna ◽  
Beckie N. Tagbo ◽  
Josephat M. Chinawa ◽  
...  

School health services (SHS) have widespread impact on the health of a large number of children with implications on access to primary health care especially in developing countries. The aim of this study was to assess health services in primary schools in Enugu East Nigeria. Thirty-three head teachers of primary schools in Enugu east Nigeria and officials of Ministry of Education were interviewed using a questionnaire adapted from school health evaluation scale. Four private schools had health personnel. Only six private schools had a health room. Two public schools had a functional first aid box. There were no health records available in any of the schools. School lunch was given by only one private school. Of a maximum of 45, public and private schools had a mean score of 10.3 and 12.7 respectively on the school health evaluation scale (P=0.01). Three schools only attained the minimum acceptable score of 19. Health services are at a minimal level in primary schools in Enugu East Nigeria. A state school health policy should be developed through inter-sectoral collaboration of the relevant stakeholders to use the platform provided by schools to ensure access to primary health care and also act as bridge for more formal medical care for school children.

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 585-591
Author(s):  
Philip R. Nader ◽  
Susan Gilman ◽  
David E. Bee

The school health and community primary health care contacts were studied for a group of elementary school children who have sociodemographic characteristics often associated with poor access to primary health services. The school system is engaged in a demonstration project that attempts to link the home with community and school services. Visits to the school health room accounted for 85% of all contacts. A visit rate of 1.13 visits/child/year occurred at primary care sites. Ethnicity is the single most important predictor of use of school health services, followed by family status and number of visits for primary health care in the community. In contrast, use of community primary care facilities is best predicted by socioeconomic status (SES), family status, and sex. The patterns of care received by the population were characterized. Children whose care was initiated, referred, or facilitated by the school were designated as receiving "interactive" care, which occurred mostly among minority and lower SES children. The data suggest that the school provides access to preventive health care for all children and facilitates care for segments of the population that usually have difficulty achieving access to the health care system.


1986 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-171
Author(s):  
Kenji ABE ◽  
Tetsuhito FUKUSHIMA ◽  
Akio NAKAGAWA ◽  
Nobuo YOSHIDA ◽  
Tomoko TAGAWA ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (suppl 6) ◽  
pp. 2713-2719
Author(s):  
Daniela Cristina Moreira Marculino de Figueiredo ◽  
Helena Eri Shimizu ◽  
Walter Massa Ramalho ◽  
Alexandre Medeiros de Figueiredo ◽  
Kerle Dayana Tavares de Lucena

ABSTRACT Objective: To describe the evaluation of patients that participated in the National Program for Improving the Access and Quality in Primary Health Care (Programa Nacional de Melhoria do Acesso e da Qualidade na Atenção Básica) for the comprehensive healthcare, the bond and the coordination of care in the country's macro-regions. Method: A descriptive, transversal study, from interviews with 65,391 patients of Primary Health Care, in 3,944 municipalities regarding the use of health services. Results: The professionals seek to solve the patients' problems in their unit (73.1%) but focused mainly on the scope of the appointment (65.6%) and offering care away from the population's reality (69.4%). Difficulties in the rescue of clinical history were referred (50.3%) and in the care performed in other health services (29.2%). Conclusion: The comprehensive health care, the bond and the coordination of care remain challenges to the Primary Health Care in the country, requiring reflections on the implementation of national policies, especially considering the regional diversities in Brazil.


1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemare Troskie

The Reconstruction and Development Plan as well as the National Health Plan of the ANC supports the reorganisation of health services. OpsommingDie Heropbou en Ontwikkelingsprogram sowel as die Nasionale Gesondheidsplan van die ANC staan die herorganisasie van gesondheidsdienste voor. *Please note: This is a reduced version of the abstract. Please refer to PDF for full text.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
L Borges Costa ◽  
C Salles Gazeta Vieira Fernandes ◽  
T Custódio Mota ◽  
E Torquato Santos ◽  
M Moura de Almeida ◽  
...  

Abstract The Alma-Ata Conference promoted Primary Health Care (PHC) worldwide as a form of universal and continuous access to quality and effective health services. In Brazil, PHC, through the Family Health Strategy (FHS), aims to be the gateway to the health system and its structuring axis. For this, it is necessary to promote access, an essential condition for the quality of health care services, following the attributes systematized by Barbara Starfield. The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of the attribute “First Contact Access” on the perspective of adult users of public PHC services in the city of Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. A transversal study was carried out, in 19 PHC Units, from June to December 2019, using the Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCATool) Brazil version for adult users. Kruskal-Wallis test was used for statistical analysis. 233 users participated, mostly women (69.5%), aged 30 to 59 years old (55.3%), mixed-race (69.5%), with complete high school (38.2%), without private health coverage (89.3%), homeowners (68.7%) and belonging to families of up to 4 members (87.9%). The “Accessibility” component had the lowest score, 2.83, and the “Utilization” had the highest score, 8.06. Older age was associated with higher “Accessibility” scores (p = 0,018), while lower values of “Utilization” were associated with higher education (p = 0,004). The main problems observed were: low access for acute demand consultations, lack of access at nighttime and weekends, little access through non-personal ways, bureaucratic barriers and a long time for scheduling appointments. We conclude that, although there was an improvement in PHC coverage in the city over the years, mainly due to FHS, there is still a lot to improve to ensure timely access to health services. Key messages Users consider PHC as the usual source of care, demonstrated by the high score of 'Utilization', however, they are unable to use it when necessary, demonstrated by the low score of 'Accessibility'. Expanding forms of access is essential to contribute to the strengthening of PHC in Fortaleza, Brazil, facilitating the entry to its national Universal Health System.


Author(s):  
Ahmad Hajebi ◽  
Vandad Sharifi ◽  
Maryam Abbasinejad ◽  
Ali Asadi ◽  
Nahid Jafari ◽  
...  

Objective: The main objective of this study was to review aspects of the current situation and structure of the integrated mental health care services for planning a reform. Aspects of the newly designed infrastructure, along with specification of duties of the various human resources, and its relation with Iran’s Comprehensive Mental and Social Health Services (the SERAJ Program), will also be presented Method: This is a study on service design and three methods of literature review, deep interview with stakeholders, and focused group discussions. In the literature review, national and international official documents, including official reports of the World Health Organization (WHO) and consultant field visits, were reviewed. Deep semi-structured interviews with 9 stakeholders were performed and results were gathered and categorized into 3 main questions were analyzed using the responsibility and effectiveness matrix method. The Final results were discussed with experts, during which the main five-domain questions were asked and the experts’ opinions were observed. Results: In this study, the main gaps of the public mental health care (PHC) services in Iran were identified, which included reduction of risk factors for mental disorders, training the general population, early recognition and treatment of patients with mental disorders, educating patients and their families, and rehabilitation services. The new model was then proposed to fill these gaps focusing on increasing access, continuity of care, coordination in service delivery, and comprehensiveness of care. A mental health worker was placed besides general healthcare workers and general practitioners (GPs). Services were prioritized and the master flowchart for mental health service delivery was designed. Conclusion: A reform was indeed necessary in the integrated mental health services in Iran, but regarding the infrastructure needed for this reform, including human and financial resources, support of the senior authorities of the Ministry of Health (MOH) is necessary for the continuity and enhancement of services. In this model, attention has been given to the principles of integrating mental health services into primary health care. Current experience shows that the primary health care system has been facing many executive challenges, and mental health services are not exclusion to this issue. Monitoring and evaluation of this model of service and efforts for maintaining sustainable financial resources is recommended to make a reform in this system and to stabilize it.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Homayoun Sadeghi Bazargani ◽  
Mohammad Saadati ◽  
Jafar Sadegh Tabrizi ◽  
Mostafa Farahbakhsh ◽  
Mina Golestani

Abstract Background: Primary Health Care (PHC) was introduced as the first level of health services delivery after Alma Ata declaration. PHC as a first level of health services delivery needs to be more trustfulness to achieve its defined goals. Public trust in PHC is one of the ignored issues in the context. The aim of this study was to explore public trust in PHC in Iran.Methods: This was a household survey study conducted in 2016 in East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. Two-stage cluster sampling method with probability proportional to size (PPS) approach was used. Totally 1178 households were enrolled in the study. PHC trust questionnaire and Ultra-short version of socio-economic status assessment questionnaire (SES-Iran) was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using STATA 15 through descriptive statistics and linear regression.Results: The mean age of the participants was 41.2, (SD: 15.1) and most of them (53.7%) were female. Mean score of PHC trust was 56.9±24.7 (out of 100). It was significantly different between inhabitants of Tabriz (the province capital city) and other cities in the province (p<0.001). Linear regression showed that younger age, gender, insurance type, being married and households higher socio-economic situation had a significant positive influence on PHC trust level with R2 = 0.14383 .Conclusions: Public trust in PHC system in Iran needs to be improved. Individual variables had a small but significant share in trust level. PHC trust not only influenced by individual variables and experience but also by health system and health providers characteristics and public sphere about PHC system. PHC trust level could be used as a public indicator in health systems especially in Low and Middle income countries to lead system strengthening policies in national and international levels.


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