Expanding Community Health Services in Haiti

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Overview

A program to expand the scope and reach of community health workers in the St. Boniface Hospital catchment area in Fonds de Blancs.

Context

It is difficult for the population in the Southern Province of Haiti to get adequate access to basic health care. St. Boniface Hospital, located in the center of Fond des Blancs and serving a population of 200,000-250,000 people, plans to improve access to health care by training and supporting community health workers in communities in the hospital’s catchment area.

Challenge

The St. Boniface Hospital (HSB) catchment area continues to be plagued by a lack of arable land, accessible roads, preventative health services, access to improved water sources, and rampant poverty. The main contributors to child mortality are malaria, acute respiratory infections (ARIs), pneumonia, parasitic infections, diarrheal diseases, and malnutrition. Lack of knowledge for detection of these key illnesses and poor access to HSB contribute to the community members’ delay in seeking healthcare. Well trained community health workers have the potential to improve access to quality health care in the community and to link residents to hospital services.

Solution

A program is to increase the CHWs’ scope of work of in order to improve access to healthcare for mothers and children in the HSB catchment area. The program proposes training CHWs in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) procedures, a curriculum to improve case management of diseases. Enabling CHWs to prevent, detect, and treat key diseases within their localities will help to decrease the delay of seeking health care and improve health outcomes for mothers and children in the community.

Results

By empowering CHWs to diagnose and treat patients suffering from diseases that can be identified in the community, HSB will be able to reach a much larger population, thus increasing the overall health in Fond des Blancs. If successful, other regions in Haiti can use this program as a template, placing Fond des Blancs at the crux of a nation in need of health reform.

Project Timeline

This project took four months to complete from kick-off meeting to presentation of final deliverables. Click the button below for a detailed timeline.

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