This article examines three South African community health worker programs, a small local non-governmental organisation, a local satellite of a national NGO, and a government-initiated service, that provide a range of services from home-based care, childcare, and health promotion to assist clients in overcoming poverty-related barriers to health care to identify factors that … [Read more...] about Outreach services to improve access to health care in South Africa: lessons from three community health worker programmes
Role and outcomes of community health workers in HIV care in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review
The provision of HIV treatment and care in sub-Saharan Africa faces multiple challenges, including weak health systems and attrition of trained health workers. One potential response to overcome these challenges has been to engage community health workers (CHWs). A systematic literature search for quantitative and qualitative studies describing the role and outcomes of CHWs in … [Read more...] about Role and outcomes of community health workers in HIV care in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review
Patient- and delivery-level factors related to acceptance of HIV counseling and testing services among tuberculosis patients in South Africa: a qualitative study with community health workers and program managers.
South Africa has a high tuberculosis (TB)-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coinfection rate of 73%, yet only 46% of TB patients are tested for HIV. To date, relatively little work has focused on understanding why TB patients may not accept effective services or participate in programs that are readily available in healthcare delivery systems. The objective of the study was to … [Read more...] about Patient- and delivery-level factors related to acceptance of HIV counseling and testing services among tuberculosis patients in South Africa: a qualitative study with community health workers and program managers.
Community health workers support community-based participatory research ethics: lessons learned along the research-to-practice-to-community continuum.
Ethical principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR)--specifically, community engagement, mutual learning, action-reflection, and commitment to sustainability--are particularly relevant in cancer disparities research because vulnerable populations are often construed to be powerless, supposedly benefiting from programs over which they have no control. The long … [Read more...] about Community health workers support community-based participatory research ethics: lessons learned along the research-to-practice-to-community continuum.
Learning from the Brazilian community health worker model in North Wales.
Health policymakers in many countries are looking at ways of increasing health care coverage by scaling up the deployment of community health workers. Traditionally this has been seen as an option for low and middle income countries with inadequate numbers of trained health professionals. In this commentary, we describe the rationale for the UK to learn from Brazil's scaled-up … [Read more...] about Learning from the Brazilian community health worker model in North Wales.