Results: 3217
Pakistan’s Lady Health Worker Programme (2008)
This case study describes the rationale, implementation strategies, achievements and challenges of a programme that created a new cadre of female health workers in the Pakistan health system to address unmet health needs of rural populations and slum dwellers. An external evaluation of the programme in 2000 found that theRead more…
The Health Workforce: Scaling up through primary health care (2008)
This presentation was delivered at the 4th Health Conference on Primary Health Care and Family Health in Brazil. Building on an overview of the global health workforce challenges, Dr Sheikh outlined short-, medium – and long-term strategies to address health personnel shortages, and analysed the links between the HRH agendaRead more…
Ethiopia’s human resources for health programme (2008)
The report describes how the Government of Ethiopia is attempting to tackle the shortage of health workers, particularly acute in rural areas. 30,000 health extension workers are being trained to be deployed at the community level to deliver essential health services. 5,000 additional health officers will be trained to superviseRead more…
Task shifting in HIV/AIDS service delivery: An exploratory study of expert patients in Uganda (2012)
This reports on a qualitative study conducted in May 2011 across six health facilities. It analyses the perspectives of expert patients, their supervisors and patients that they serve with regards to roles undertaken by expert patients and the support that they receive to undertake these roles. The report also providesRead more…
Human resources for mental health care: current situation and strategies for action (2011)
A challenge faced by many countries is to provide adequate human resources for delivery of essential mental health interventions. The overwhelming worldwide shortage of human resources for mental health, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries, is well established. Evidence suggests that mental health care can be delivered effectively in primaryRead more…
Synthesis Paper: Developed out of the outcomes of four consultations on Community Health Workers and other Frontline Health Workers held in May/June 2012 (2013)
With efforts coordinate by the Global Health Workforce Alliance, this synthesis paper highlights the synergies among the outcomes of the four community health worker events held in 2012. It aims develop a set of common messages to promote harmonized response and collaborative support for improved access to, and performance ofRead more…
Developing lay health worker policy in South Africa: a qualitative study (2012)
Over the past half decade South Africa has been developing, implementing and redeveloping its Lay Health Worker (LHW) policies. Research during this period has highlighted challenges with LHW programme implementation. These challenges have included an increased burden of care for female LHWs. The aim of this study was to exploreRead more…
Evidence-based training of frontline health workers for door-to-door health promotion: a pilot randomized controlled cluster trial with Lady Health Workers in Sindh Province, Pakistan. (2008)
In an effort to improve access to care for women and children, the Pakistan National Programme for Family Planning and Primary Health Care recruits women and trains them to provide family planning services and primary health care in their own communities. Known as lady health workers (LHWs), they are the front line of health careRead more…
Barriers and facilitators to the implementation of lay health worker programmes to improve access to maternal and child health: qualitative evidence synthesis (2012)
Lay health workers (LHWs) perform functions related to healthcare delivery, receive some level of training, but have no formal professional or paraprofessional certificate or tertiary education degree. This review addresses these issues through a synthesis of qualitative evidence and was carried out alongside the Cochrane review of the effectiveness ofRead more…
Performance factors of mobile rich media job aids for community health workers. (2011)
In developing countries, where the density of trained physicians and nurses is low, community health workers (CHWs) are typically the primary and sometimes sole providers of healthcare to millions. However, studies have shown that even well motivated CHWs using paper-based job aids demonstrate less-than-desirable rates of treatment and diagnosis errors, and low protocol compliance.Read more…
Impact of a mHealth intervention for peer health workers on AIDS care in rural Uganda: a mixed methods evaluation of a cluster-randomized trial. (2011)
Mobile phone access in low and middle-income countries is rapidly expanding and offers an opportunity to leverage limited human resources for health. We conducted a mixed methods evaluation of a cluster-randomized trial exploratory substudy on the impact of a mHealth (mobile phone) support intervention used by community-based peer health workersRead more…
Retention of female volunteer community health workers in Dhaka urban slums: a case-control study (2011)
Volunteer community health workers (CHWs) are one approach to addressing the health workforce shortage in developing countries. BRAC, a large NGO in Bangladesh, is a pioneer in using female volunteer CHWs as core workers in its successful health programmes. After 25 years of implementing the CHW model in rural areas,Read more…
Can Volunteer Community Health Workers Decrease Child Morbidity and Mortality in Southwestern Uganda? An Impact Evaluation (2011)
The potential for community health workers to improve child health in sub-Saharan Africa is not well understood. Healthy Child Uganda implemented a volunteer community health worker child health promotion model in rural Uganda. An impact evaluation was conducted to assess volunteer community health workers’ effect on child morbidity, mortality andRead more…
Quality of care for severe acute malnutrition delivered by community health workers in southern Bangladesh (2013)
This study assessed the quality of care provided by community health workers (CHWs) in managing cases of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) according to a treatment algorithm. CHWs screened children at community level using a mid-upper arm circumference measurement, and treated cases without medical complications. Caretakers perceived CHWs’ services as acceptableRead more…
Peer Health Workers and AIDS Care in Rakai, Uganda: A Mixed Methods Operations Research Evaluation of a Cluster-Randomized Trial (2011)
Settings with limited health care workers are challenging environments for delivery of antiretroviral therapy. One strategy to address this human resource crisis is to task shift through training selected patients as peer health workers (PHWs) to provide care to other individuals receiving antiretroviral therapy. The results of the study showedRead more…
Community and Formal Health System Support for Enhanced Community Health Worker Performance (2012)
The global shortage of skilled, motivated, and supported health workers is universally acknowledged as a key development challenge because it is a critical barrier to strengthening health systems, achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), improving the prospects for universal health coverage, and addressing inequity and poverty. The World Health Report 2006, Working Together forRead more…
Lay health workers in primary and community health care for maternal and child health and the management of infectious diseases (2010)
Lay health workers (LHWs) are widely used to provide care for a broad range of health issues. Little is known, however, about the effectiveness of LHW interventions.The paper assesses the effectiveness of LHW interventions in primary and community health care on maternal and child health and the management of infectiousRead more…
Global Health Evidence Summit: Community and Formal Health System Support for Enhanced Community Health Worker Performance (2012)
The global shortage of skilled, motivated, and supported health workers is universally acknowledged as a barrier to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The World Health Report 2006, “Working Together for Health,” estimated that there is a shortage of 4.3 million health workers in the world. To help alleviate this shortage, many countries areRead more…
Consultation on Improving Access to Health Worker at the Frontline for Better Maternal and Child Survival (2012)
This report summarizes the Consultation on Improving Access to Health Workers at the Frontline for Better Maternal and Child Survival held in Nairobi, Kenya from 25th to 27th June 2012. The overarching objective of the consultation was to speed up and scale up country responses to the human resource needsRead more…
CHWs and other FLHW: Moving from Fragmentation to Synergy to achieve Universal Health Coverage (2013)
From the early years of primary health care, community-based health workers and volunteers (CHWs) have played a key role in satisfying the need and demand for essential health services. This article proposes that CHWs need to be supported and recognized as a pivotal part of health care. CHW programmes needRead more…
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