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Helping the Hands that Heal!
The goal of CBPHC is to improve individual and community health by making health services accessible and close to the people, by focusing on preventive health services and promoting healthy life styles. Achieving this goal will include building the capacity of local communities and their leaders. Communities are engaged to establish their own health committees, select persons to be trained as community health volunteers. Through the CBPHC model, people will be empowered to take responsibility for their health in order to improve individual and family health status, particularly the health of mothers and children.
Modern medical care has traditionally been delivered through hospitals, clinics and dispensaries staffed by professionally trained personnel. This model predominates throughout the world. It provides good care to untold millions and continues to be the center of our health care systems. However, institution-based care is increasingly expensive to provide and increasingly available only to those who have the means to pay. It is concentrated in the larger more affluent urban centers and consequently leaves large segments of the population, particularly those in the rural areas and the poor, with very inadequate care.
Mission organizations and churches have been leaders in providing health care for underserved populations. They often operate at the periphery where the needs are the greatest and the resources the least. Despite having to work with meager resources under difficult physical circumstances they have and continue to provide excellent medical care. Church/Mission medical systems, including that of LCCN, have been built around the traditional western institution-based model consisting of first level hospitals supervising a network of rural clinics. The model has been oriented to caring for patients who manage, under difficult circumstances, to get themselves to the clinic or hospital.
Over the last 50 or so years a powerful new tool, Community-Based Primary Health Care (CBPHC), has been developed as an integral part of Primary Health Care for engaging communities in the protection of their own health. It serves as a bridge between the institutions and the community in pursuing the goal of HEALTH FOR ALL. CBPHC in its simplest form may be defined as any activity that directly or indirectly has a positive influence on health, and that does not take place exclusively in a health center or hospital. CBPHC, in its most effective and sustainable form, engages the community as a partner with community health institutions in health-building activities. CBPHC activities may be carried out as extensions of existing medical institutions or by other organizations (churches, associations etc) in the community.
Some of the ways in which community members are involved in practicing, modeling and promoting healthy living are:
o Community mobilization for participation and program ownership
o Identification and training of community volunteers/animators
o Baseline surveys and monitoring programs to evaluate progress.
o Preventive and promotive health care activities
o Community level treatment of diarrhea and acute respiratory illness
o Malaria prevention/control and treatment
o HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) interventions including prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT)
o Environmental Health - Water and Sanitation
o Home-Based care and palliative care for chronically/terminally ill persons