Community Health Workers in National Programmes
Just Another Pair of Hands
Gill Walt(Author)
Open University Press
Published on 1. December 1990
Book
Hardback
192 pages
978-0-335-15433-3 (ISBN)
Description
Community health worker schemes expanded in many developing countries during the 1970s, aimed at promoting primary health care. In recent years questions have been raised about these programmes and the extent to which community health workers have become "just another pair of hands". This book presents the results of a large investigation into what has happened to CHWs in their many guises, in various national programmes. It looks at the context of changing health policies over the last four decades, the emphasis given to primary health care in the 1970s and the resulting confusion about the role of the community health workers. The second part of the book addresses issues about what tasks and skills they have, their place in the health system and the costs of the CHW programmes. Programmes in Botswana, Colombia and Sir Lanka are studied. Finally, the book looks beyond the problems currently being faced to see how such programmes can be made to work more successfully.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Milton Keynes
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
index
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Weight
500 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-335-15433-3 (9780335154333)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Content
Part 1 Background - CHWS: the evolution of a concept; who are community health workers. Part 2 Issues: tasks and skills; links in a chain?; sustaining CHW programmes. Part 3 Case studies: evaluating CHW programmes; family welfare educators in Botswana; health promoters in Colombia; health volunteers in Sri Lanka. Part 4 Conclusions: just another pair of hands.