Community health workers in national programmes: the case of the family welfare educators of Botswana
- 1 January 1989
- journal article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
- Vol. 83 (1) , 49-55
- https://doi.org/10.1016/0035-9203(89)90703-7
Abstract
Community health worker programmes have become a prominent feature of many primary health care schemes in developing countries. This paper, which is based on a larger collaborative study undertaken in 3 countries, focuses on the experiences with such workers in Botswana, and concludes that many of the key issues that were highlighted in the Botswana study are similar to those in other countries. These can be summarized under four headings: unrealistic expectations, poor initial planning, problems of sustainability, and the difficulty of maintaining quality of care. The future success of these workers will depend on their being integrated more systematically into local services, with concomitant strengthening of management support and supervision.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Clinic-based PHC auxiliaries: an overlooked category of health worker?Health Policy and Planning, 1987
- Community-based health workers: Head start or false start towards health for all?Social Science & Medicine, 1987