CHW Central

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Program Design

Community Health Worker Programs: A Review of Recent Literature

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This paper reviews recently published literature on community health worker programs, primarily focusing on maternal and newborn child health. Eighteen CHW programs and eleven relevant articles were included. It identifies key components of successful CHWs programs, reviews past successes and failures of CHW program implementation and summarizes important lessons learned. … [Read more...] about Community Health Worker Programs: A Review of Recent Literature

Community case management in Nicaragua: lessons in fostering adoption and expanding implementation

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This article looks at the policy landscape and processes that led to the implementation of a community case management (CCM) for child survival program in Nicaragua. The authors review both the contextual factors that facilitated CCM as well as the challenges, and conclude that continuous monitoring is essential for both sustainability and scale up. … [Read more...] about Community case management in Nicaragua: lessons in fostering adoption and expanding implementation

Iranian health houses open the door to primary care

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This article reviews Iran’s “Health Houses,” which were conceived and introduced during the country’s 1980-1988 war with Iraq. The health houses are run by trained CHWs, called behvarzan, who provide basic health care to most of the country's rural population. Female behvarz are typically responsible for child and maternal health, vaccinations, registration and administering … [Read more...] about Iranian health houses open the door to primary care

Six Guiding Principles of Streamlining Community-based Programs

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This report summarizes six guiding principles and lessons learned that emerged from the work of an MOH/BASICS team developing a community-based IMCI program in Madagascar. The principles elaborated for streamlining community-based programs are: 1. Action-based messages; 2. Easy-to-use front-line teaching tools; 3. Short skill-based trainings; 4. Engaging large numbers of … [Read more...] about Six Guiding Principles of Streamlining Community-based Programs

Thailand’s unsung heroes

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This article reports on the important contributions of community health volunteers in the success of primary health care in Thailand. More than 800,000 health volunteers, including Buddhist monks and their temples, work to promote primary health care and health promotion across the country. … [Read more...] about Thailand’s unsung heroes