With hundreds of illustrations and clear instructions, A Community Guide to Environmental Health helps health promoters, development workers, environmental activists, and community leaders take charge of their environmental health in villages and cities alike. Also available in Arabic, Spanish, Chin...ese, Portuguese, Turkish, Dari, Malayan, Mongolian and Russian.
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Interim guidance2 November 2020
This interim guidance, originally entitled “Harmonized health service capacity assessments in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic”, is an update to the earlier version published on 31 May 2020 as “Harmonized modules for health ... facility assessment modules in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic”. In this update, module content has been further refined and developed
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DHS Working Papers No. 114
This report makes the case for a major new initiative—to rapidly recruit, train and deploy 2 million community health workers in Africa. Drawing on a vast body of evidence and substantial regional experience, the report shows how community health workers save lives and improve quality of life and ...how investments in community health workers effectively harness the demographic dividend, reduce gender inequality and accelerate economic growth and development. Indeed, the benefits of community health workers stretch from one end of the Agenda for Sustainable Development to the other.
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Best Practices Guidelines
Accessed: 06.11.2019
Background: Community health worker (CHW) programmes are a valuable component of primary care in resource-poor settings. The evidence supporting their effectiveness generally shows improvements in disease-specific outcomes relative to the absence of a CHW programme. In this study, we evaluated expan...ding an existing HIV and tuberculosis (TB) disease-specific CHW programme into a polyvalent, household-based model that subsequently included non-communicable diseases (NCDs), malnutrition and TB screening, as well as family planning and antenatal care (ANC).
Methods: We conducted a stepped-wedge cluster randomised controlled trial in Neno District, Malawi. Six clusters of approximately 20 000 residents were formed from the catchment areas of 11 healthcare facilities. The intervention roll-out was staggered every 3 months over 18 months, with CHWs receiving a 5-day foundational training for their new tasks and assigned 20–40 households for monthly (or more frequent) visits.
Findings: The intervention resulted in a decrease of approximately 20% in the rate of patients defaulting from chronic NCD care each month (−0.8 percentage points (pp) (95% credible interval: −2.5 to 0.5)) while maintaining the already low default rates for HIV patients (0.0 pp, 95% CI: −0.6 to 0.5). First trimester ANC attendance increased by approximately 30% (6.5pp (−0.3, 15.8)) and paediatric malnutrition case finding declined by 10% (−0.6 per 1000 (95% CI −2.5 to 0.8)). There were no changes in TB programme outcomes, potentially due to data challenges.
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Policy note: Cambodia Health Systems in Transition.
The health system includes a mix of public and private providers. The use of private providers is much greater among the wealthy, while the use of informal-sector health providers is greater among the poor. Due to these circumstances there is ...considerable scope to establish appropriate public-private cooperation and to reinforce the regulatory mandate of the Ministry of Health (MOH).
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Breaking Barriers is an implementation research project focusing on social and behavioural change. It is conducted in conflict-affected communities in Cameroon. The project explores three innovative, community-based interventions designed to improve health behaviours. This presentation outlines the ...project's context, methodology and implementation process. It also shares qualitative insights and field perspectives, reflecting on key lessons learned for future SBC efforts in fragile settings.
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