Community Members

This issue of the HST Update covers topics such as: care from within the community; the Khayelihle example; and the role of organizations outside the government in community-based care.

A participatory assessment process is a valuable starting point for involving all community members, including young people, in YRH and HIV/AIDS program development. YRH and HIV/AIDS program workers need skills in facilitating participatory assessments, especially when youth involvement is a key component. Supporting facilitators to learn by doing is an effective strategy to build skills in using participatory learning and action (PLA) approaches and tools during participatory assessment and throughout the project cycle. This guide aims to provide easy-to-follow guidelines for carrying out a participatory assessment with young and adult community members, and to outline how these tools and methods can be applied throughout the project cycle.

A number of ART projects are trying to tackle the HRH problematic by delegating certain tasks from medical doctors to other cadres. While this task-shifting is certainly an important step, we contend that it will not be enough for scaling up ART in the high HIV-prevalence countries with the most severe HRH shortages. In the present report we argue that an altogether different approach to HIV/AIDS care and treatment might be required for overcoming the HRH bottleneck. [from summary]

This field guide has been designed to be used by [those] who are considering using community mobilization to improve health at the individual, family, and community level.The guide guide contains illustrative examples and lessons learned in community mobilization experiences from around the world, focusing on working with disadvantaged or marginalized groups in developing countries. The characteristics of each country and each region are very different, so the field guide does not recommend a unique strategy for community mobilization but offers instead general principles and methods which will need to be adapted to local settings and conditions. [author’s description]

In recent years, a number of specific strategies for improving health services and strengthening health systems have been consistently advocated. In order to advise governments, WHO commissioned this exploratory study to examine more closely the track record of these strategies in twelve low-income countries. [author’s description]

Over the past 25 years, Pathfinder has learned many lessons about what makes community-based programs thrive. Outlined in this report are some of the lessons learned and examples of how these programmatic concepts are integrated into our work. [from introduction]

This report discusses issues such as compensation for community health workers, building partnerships, and alternate service delivery options.

This issue of The Manager discusses the role of local resources in strengthening health services. It will help health managers at the local level to identify types of local resources that may be available to them, decide on strategies for mobilizing these resources, and assess the value of such resources to their organization or program. [author’s description]

It is imperative that we use our limited health care resources as optimally as possible. One of the best ways of doing this is through home-based care and community-based care. These guidelines are intended to assist in the development and implementation of nationwide home-based and community-based care programmes. [from foreword]

The goal of the community assessment described here is for health staff and communities to jointly identify and prioritize health problems and then develop plans to solve them. This approach collects and uses information on maternal and child health behaviors and is designed for district and subdistrict program planners and health staff. These implementation guidelines include a description of the overall design, the procedures, and suggestions for training. Assessment forms are included within each section. [abstract]

This report of a two-day technical consultation summarizes challenges, lessons learned from promising projects, knowledge and practice gaps, and recommendations for future practice. It suggests guidelines for community involvement in youth reproductive health and HIV prevention at all stages of a project cycle. [publisher’s description]

Sustaining healthy populations and creating a context that facilitates health may require a broader perspective, such as that embodied in community participation. But some health specialists think that community participation is time-consuming and does not really improve health outcomes. Participatory processes can be protracted and progress toward health goals delayed, requiring heavy time and resource investments that may not be matched by the achievement of desired results. This Health Bulletin explores community participation in health, using five case studies of participatory processes and their role in instigating important health and well-being benefits.