Community Interventions

The group developed a set of guiding principles for working with para professionals to form a base from which to develop programs and activities related to how these workers can be trained, developed, deployed and supported. The group also decided that an important contribution to this area of work would be the development of a competency framework for para professionals that would outline the functions and competencies of para professionals and could be used to provide program guidance, accountability and ultimately inform both training and supervision. [from resource]

The scoping paper focuses primarily on interventions and policies that lie at the intersection of immunisation and community engagement approaches. [from abstract]

The purpose of this paper is to explore how data collected at the community level is utilised by various stakeholders within the community in order to produce actionable information for decision making. [from abstract]

As non-communicable diseases become a major health burden requiring long-term healthcare in community settings, this systematic review aims to assess the equivalence of NP services to standard care provided by MDs, and to determine whether their practice is an effective alternative to that of MDs in community settings. [from abstract]

Home visits by Community Health Workers [In Uganda Community Health Workers are given the collective term of Village Health Teams (VHIs). This is recommended to improve maternal and newborn care. We investigated perceived maternal and newborn benefits of home visits made by VHTs, combined with mobile phone consultations with professional health workers for advice. [adapted from abstract]

This study explores the perceptions of health managers and health care providers on the case management of uncomplicated malaria among under-fives in selected primary health care (PHC) facilities of two Local Government Areas (LGAs), Katcha and Gbako, as part of baselines for capacity-building interventions planned in Niger State, Nigeria. [from abstract]

This article outlines the process of identifying tools that, with modification, could assist in the evaluation of Community-Based Education programmes in participating Medical Education Partnership Initiative schools, funded by PEPFAR.

In 2012, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW), Tanzania, approved national guidelines and training materials for community health workers (CHWs) in integrated maternal, newborn and child health (Integrated MNCH), with CHWs trained and deployed across five districts of Morogoro Region soon after. To inform future scale up, this study assessed motivation and satisfaction among these CHWs. [from abstract]

This report sheds light on key social service workforce data and trends in 2014, showcases innovative and effective workforce strengthening initiatives, and highlights the impact of a lack of data in this fairly new area
of focus. This first annual report is envisioned as a first step among many other global, regional, and national
efforts to better describe, depict, and analyze efforts to strengthen the social service workforce. [from executive summary]

Community-based strategies that foster frequent contact between caregivers of children under five and provide credible sources of health information are essential to improve child survival. Care Groups are a community-based implementation strategy for the delivery of social and behavior change interventions. This study assessed if supervision of Care Group activities by Ministry of Health (MOH) personnel could achieve the same child health outcomes as supervision provided by specialized non-governmental organization (NGO) staff. [from abstract]

This position paper highlights the outcome of a recent mapping exercise in Turkana, Machakos and Kibera. Insights
from this study indicate that communities have embraced the Community Health Strategy and its contribution to improved
health status. [from introduction]

This study sought to assess the staff requirements, work load and performance with respect to the CH work force
using workload indicator of staffing need (WISN) tool. The ultimate objective was to provide information to guide the organization, management and development of the work force. [from abstract]

This paper presents global estimates on rural/urban disparities in access to health-care services. The report uses proxy indicators to assess key dimensions of coverage and access involving the core principles of universality and equity. Based on the results of the estimates, policy options are discussed to close the gaps in a multi-sectoral approach addressing issues and their root causes both within and beyond the health sector. [from abstract]

Given the large scale adoption and deployment of mobile phones by health services and frontline health workers (FHW), we aimed to review and synthesize the evidence on the feasibility and effectiveness of mobile-based services on healthcare delivery. [from abstract]

Close-to-community (CTC) providers, including community health workers or volunteers or health extension workers, can be effective in promoting access to and utilization of health services. Tasks are often shifted to these providers with limited resources and support from CTC programmes or communities. Two cases are presented. [from abstract]

This research deals with the expectations and reality of primary health care in Bangladesh and focuses on different
Government and NGOs health care situation in rural areas. [from abstract]

This working paper explores the topic of social service workforce strengthening as it relates to child care reform. It is intended to be a useful resource for reform efforts and a practical and accessible overview for use by policy-makers, practitioners, and service providers in contexts that are either considering the implications of care reforms for their social service workforce or are already engaged in the process. The paper illustrates key issues by drawing on the experiences of Indonesia, Moldova, and Rwanda, three countries in the process of reform. [from

Community health workers (CHWs) are increasingly recognized as an integral component of the health workforce needed to achieve public health goals in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Many factors intersect to influence CHW performance. A systematic review with a narrative analysis was conducted to identify contextual factors influencing
performance of CHWs. [from abstract]

Integrated community case management (iCCM) has been recommended by the World Health Organization to reduce mortality among children in populations with limited access to facility–based health care providers. Although many countries have introduced iCCM, interpretation of the impact is difficult due to many other activities occurring in the community. This paper suggests a method for using the Lives Saved Tool to model the independent impact of iCCM on child mortality. [from abstract]

Since 2010, 28,000 female health extension workers (HEWs) received training and support to provide integrated community based case management (iCCM) of childhood pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, and severe malnutrition in Ethiopia. We conducted a modeling exercise using two scenarios to project the potential reduction of the under five mortality rate due to the iCCM program in the four agrarian regions of Ethiopia. [from abstract]

In 2010, Ethiopia added pneumonia to diarrhea, malaria and severe acute malnutrition, targeted for treatment in the integrated community case management (iCCM) strategy. This article describes the national scale-up of iCCM implementation and early lessons learned. [from abstract]

Malaria is holo-endemic in Burkina Faso and causes approximately 40,000 deaths every year. In 2010, health authorities scaled up community case management of malaria with artemisinin-based combination therapy. Previous trials and pilot project evaluations have shown that this strategy may be feasible, acceptable, and effective under controlled implementation conditions. However, little is known about its effectiveness or feasibility/acceptability under real-world conditions of implementation at national scale. [from abstract]

Primary Care reform in Canada and globally has encouraged the development of interprofessional
primary care initiatives. This has led to significant involvement of non-physician Health Care Providers (NPHCPs) in the teaching of medical trainees. The objective of this study was to understand the experiences, supports and challenges facing non-physician health care providers in Family Medicine education. [from abstract]

District clinical specialist teams were formed in 2012. One member of the team is the family physician. The role of the district family physician is discussed and the case made for focusing on the organisational health of the medical teams practising family medicine within the district as an effective way to improve the quality of medical care delivered in the district. [from abstract]

The aim of this descriptive, interventional study is to highlight positive steps taken by governments to re-establish and revitalise PHC, especially by empowering communities, the challenges, and lessons learned as potentials for improvement of a universal, qualitative PHC system in Nigeria. [from abstract]

The health seeking behaviour of a community determines how they use health services. Utilisation of health facilities can be influenced by the cost of services, distance to health facilities, cultural beliefs, level of education and health facility inadequacies such as stock-out of drugs.
This study will assess the health seeking practices and challenges in utilising health facilities in a rural community in Wakiso district, Uganda. [from abstract]

Sensitivity training of front-line African health care workers (HCWs) attending to men who have sex with men (MSM) is actively promoted through national HIV prevention programming in Kenya.

The complex constellation of factors that underlie and reinforce gender-based violence (GBV) warrants a strong multi-level and multisectoral response. This technical brief explores Pathfinder’s experience pioneering a multisectoral approach to GBV prevention and response across two projects in Mozambique, and outlines key lessons learned and next steps. [from abstract]

Mobile health (mHealth) applications, such as innovative electronic forms on smartphones, could potentially improve the performance of health care workers and health systems in developing countries. However, contextual evidence on health workers’ barriers and motivating factors that may influence large-scale implementation of such interfaces for health care delivery is scarce. [from abstract]

The policy on gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) in health sector of Nepal is formulated in 2009 targeting toward poor, vulnerable, marginalized social and ethnic groups. Gender inequality and social discrimination are a social problem that affect on individual health finally. The main objective of this paper is to critically analysis and evaluates the Government’s strategy on health sector gender equality and social inclusion in Nepal. [from abstract]