County Health commodities. According to Living Goods Director of Health, Living Goods has so far trained over 300 CHVs in Kenya, registering over 30,400 households reaching over 152,000 people. In the next several years, the organization will continue to collaborate with the counties and national government to expand into additional regions and bring better health services to hundreds of thousands of Kenyans.
Dr. Siminyu acknowledges the role of Living Goods in the effective delivery of community health services in the county. He says that the Living Goods model has enhanced the effectiveness of the CHVs and reduced the workload in some link facilities such as Busibwabo Health Centre.“ They have been supportive as primary health givers in offering services such as making referrals,” he explains.“ We have found that when CHVs are motivated and active in communities, there are less and less clients at the link facilities.’’ By directly visiting households, CHVs have increased access to care for groups who are particularly difficult to reach— such as secluded women, the extremely poor, or the lowest classes of society.“ With their links to the health system, CHVs can also offer an entry point for and at times directly providing health services, such as contraceptive methods, home-based care for people living with AIDS, directly observed therapy of tuberculosis, and communityintegrated management of childhood illnesses,’’ he stressed.
Leveraging Technology to Deliver Health Impact
The Living Goods model harnesses technology to keep CHVs motivated, organized, and effective. The organization’ s innovative mobile tools allow CHVsto register and track pregnancies, accurately perform community case management through standard protocols, and follow up with clients in person and via phone. Monthly targets are set for the CHVs and performance is tracked real time using mobile data platform. The mobile phones help overcome geographical and other constraints, and provide innovative practice-based tools that help facilitate increased communication and support between CHVs, their supervisors, and the end clients. Ruth Ngechu, Director of Health Living Goods explains that the organization’ s effective mobile tools provide higher-quality services and allows managers to actively track and enhance CHVs’ performance.
Moving Community Health Forward in Kenya
According to Dr. Salim Hussein, Head of Community Health and Development, Ministry of Health has approximately 4,700 established community health units, with 92,000 community health volunteers and 3,600 community health extension workers delivering health services to over 50 percent of the country’ s population. He explains that since the implementation of community health services began in 2008, there has been an improvement in immunization, antenatal care, and reduction of childhood diseases. Cases of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension have decreased as a result of intensive screenings and awareness creation.
The Ministry of Health implemented the community strategy after a 2004 evaluation of Kenya’ s health status yielded unsatisfactory results. The importance of community health services has been restated in the Kenya Health Policy Framework of 2013-2030 as well as in the Kenya Health Strategic and Investment Plan of 2013-2017. Currently, the Ministry of Health is working with the county governments to develop a Community Health Policy to guide the implementation of the community health services.
The partnership between Busia County and Living Good demonstrates how collaborative and innovative approaches can help build, strengthen, and grow effective community health worker networks. It’ s a step in the right direction toward a healthier Kenya.
Living Goods community health volunteers during community session in Busia
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