Expanding Community Health Worker decision space: learning from a Participatory Action Research training intervention in a rural South African district.

ABSTRACT:

Background

While integral to decentralising health reforms, Community Health Workers (CHWs) in South Africa experience many challenges. During COVID-19, CHW roles changed rapidly, shifting from communities to clinics. In the contexts of new roles and re-engineered primary healthcare (PHC), the objectives were to: (a) implement a training intervention to support local decision-making capability of CHWs; and (b) assess learning and impacts from the perspectives of CHWs.

Methods

CHWs from three rural villages (n = 9) were trained in rapid Participatory Action Research (PAR) with peers and community stakeholders (n = 33). Training equipped CHWs with tools and techniques to convene community groups, raise and/or respond to local health concerns, understand concerns from different

SUBMITTER: D'Ambruoso L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10439531 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature