Community Interventions

The main aim of this article is to reinforce the concept that there is a need to strengthen the basic pharmaceutical system in the Arab and African world before implementing any advanced clinical pharmacy or pharmaceutical care services to our communities. [from abstract]

This paper presents findings from a study designed to assess the extent to which community residents and leaders participated in the skilled delivery program and the specific roles they played in its implementation and effectiveness. [from abstract]

This manual provides guidance for community care workers and other wardens of orphans and other vulnerable children who intend to use the Child Status Index tool. [from abstract]

This paper tests the effectiveness of two service delivery models designed to promote recommended behaviors, including prompt treatment seeking for febrile illness, in Odisha India. The tested modules include supportive supervision of community health workers and community mobilization promoting appropriate health seeking. [from abstract]

Presentation on assessment of surgical need, surgical personnel, infrastructure and supplies in Central Malawi. [adapted from author]

To evaluate the impact of free bus travel for young people in London on the public health. Specifically, to provide empirical evidence for the impact of this ‘natural experiment’ on health outcomes and behaviours (e.g. injuries, active travel) for young people; explore the effects on the determinants of health; identify the effects on older citizens of increased access to bus travel for young people and to identify whether or not the intervention represented value for money. [from abstract]

This analysis examines this issue of performance and attrition in [voluntary medical male circumcision] programs by looking descriptively at job-fulfillment and burnout. [from introduction]

This technical highlight provides a brief overview of Pathfinder’s experience implementing the Kenyan Community Strategy through the USAID-funded APHIAplus (AIDS, Population, and Health Integrated Assistance Plus) Nairobi-Coast project (2011-2014). [from abstract]

This paper identifies, ranks and compares perceptions of insured and uninsured households in Ghana on health care providers (quality of care, service delivery adequacy, staff attitudes), health insurance schemes (price, benefits and convenience) and community attributes (health ‘beliefs and attitudes’ and peer pressure). [from abstract]

This paper provides an overview of innovative experiences adapted while addressing these urban health issues, including the process of deriving constructive lessons needed to inform discourse on the design and implementation of the sustainable Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) model as a response to urban health challenges in Southern Ghana. [from abstract]

This article assessed how a program for integrated community case management (iCCM) for children under 5 years addresses newborn care in three mid-western districts through document reviews, structured interviews, and focus group discussions with village health team members trained in iCCM, caregivers, and other stakeholders. [adapted from abstract]

This study compared effectiveness and use of community medicine distributors and drug use under integrated community case management and home-based management strategies in children 6–59 months of age in eastern Uganda. [adapted from abstract]

Effectively scaling up treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR TB) will require addressing health systems–related issues, such as task shifting to alleviate human resources shortages and greater community engagement. This guide provides practical, step-by-step guidance on how to organize, implement, and monitor community-based care for DR TB. [adapted from introduction]

This article documents the intervention package and evaluation design of a study conducted in a rural district of Bangladesh to evaluate the effects of an integrated, community-based maternal and neonatal health and postpartum family planning program on contraceptive use and birth-interval lengths.

This article describes the scale-up of the Community Health Information System (CHIS), a family-centered health information system designed for the health extension worker to manage and monitor her work in educating households and delivering an integrated package of promotive, preventive, and basic curative health service to families. It also documents achievements and challenges, sharing lessons learned that can be useful in CHIS implementation in other regions. [adapted from summary]

This presentation outlines the methodology, aims and results of a highly successful and innovative program of pre-service health education at Lurio University that links future health professionals with the community by assigning each student to a family. The student monitors the family’s health status and analyzes the social, economic and cultural aspects impacting on the individuals’s and family health such as education and nutrition.

This protocol will test the effect of community mobilization through women’s groups, and health management committee strengthening, on institutional deliveries and home deliveries attended by trained health workers. [adapted from abstract]

This study was undertaken to assess the scope and nature of community-based education for various health worker cadres in Uganda. [from abstract]

Ram Shrestha’s 5.5 minute video advocates linking the formal health systems of the national government with the informal systems of the community groups in order for everyone to benefit from wider coverage of health services and improved health outcomes. [adapted from publisher]

This case study explores the significant role of community-based initiatives and the process of collaborating with communit organziations to address HIV within communities of high-risk populations in India. [adapted from author]

This toolkit contains resources to help policy makers, program managers, service providers, and other audiences improve access to and quality of community-based family planning services. [from publisher]

This paper from the International Conference on ICT for Africa reports on a mobile phone application designed to support community health workers in providing family planning counseling to their clients. [from abstract]

This article describes an assessment of the effects of community mobilisation through women’s groups, and health education through female volunteer peer counsellors on rates of infant care, feeding, morbidity, and mortality. [adapted from author]

The aim of this study is to examine the safety and feasibility of community-based medical care for survivors of sexual assault to contribute to building an evidence base on alternative models of care in humanitarian settings. [from abstract]

This review sought to develop taxonomy of community-based care programs focused on HIV/ AIDS in resource-limited settings in an effort to understand their key characteristics, uncover any gaps in programming, and highlight the potential roles they play. [from abstract]

The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of preventive care provided by community health clinicians; the association between client and service characteristics and receipt of care; and acceptability of care in order to inform interventions that facilitate adoption of opportunistic preventive care delivery. [adapted from abstract]

This review was commissioned to help address the information gap around the essential and complementary role of communities in prevention of mother to child transmission. In particular, this study sought to identify and share promising practices for community-based interventions that can strengthen programs and facilitate efforts to stop HIV transmission to children and enable their mothers to remain healthy. [adapted from author]

This article reports on a successful partnership to improve access and reduce family and community resistance to polio vaccination in India. The partners trained thousands of mobilizers from high-risk communities to visit households, promote government-run child immunization services, track children’s immunization history and encourage vaccination of children missing scheduled vaccinations, and mobilize local opinion leaders. [adapted from author]

This paper describes the history of how an experimental study set the stage for a national program for promoting community-based primary health care—the Community-Based Health Planning and Services initiative, which deployed nurses to the community and engaged local leaders, reducing child mortality and fertility substantially. [adapted from author]

This research explores the factors that facilitate and impede community health network activation, framing, mobilisation and synthesis.India was selected as a case study as it represents a fertile context in which to explore community health networks given the diversity and density of community health NGOs and the dependency of the health care system on such providers. [adapted from author]