Abstract
Rural health is a core component of public health but developing rural is a major public challenge, especially, in poor and resource-limited settings around the world. Poor rural healthcare, both access and quality is a strong contributory factor in poor health outcomes such as high maternal, under-five, and infant mortality rates in developing countries, particularly, in sub-Sahara Africa; as millions of rural folks including women and children face many challenges in accessing primary healthcare. This chapter will examine these challenges in rural communities that negatively affect health outcomes and create health disparities between rural and urban populations in Ghana. We will discuss how maternal and child health outcomes can be improved through collaborative rural health promotion. A case for collaborative rural health promotion efforts will be made in this chapter and a community-based health planning and delivery service (CHPS) model will be presented as an example of collaborative rural health promotion in Ghana.
Highlights
The accessibility and availability of appropriate health services for people living in rural areas remain an ongoing issue of public health concern [1]
The policy guidelines for implementation of community-based health planning and delivery service (CHPS), the building of CHPS compounds in rural communities, and the training of community health officer (CHO), community health volunteers (CHVs), and community health management committees (CHMCs) have all resulted in improvement in health outcomes in rural communities in Ghana
As a result of the successes observed during the piloting and earlier implementation stages of CHPS, the concept was well accepted and efforts to make it a national health delivery system have led to remarkable progress in the development and procurement of infrastructure and equipment throughout rural and even urban areas around the country
Summary
The accessibility and availability of appropriate health services for people living in rural areas remain an ongoing issue of public health concern [1]. Rural health issues have received attention worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has again highlighted the fact that the most vulnerable populations will likely feel the greatest impact This includes people who live in rural and remote communities with less access to critical health services [4]. Ghana has gained the reputation as the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa with an operative nationwide health insurance scheme and a leader in universal health coverage (UHC) [9, 10] This assures access to healthcare services for both those in the formal and informal sectors of the economy as well as the agricultural and rural populations in one national scheme [11, 12]. This chapter focuses on the health disparity challenges of people living in rural areas of Ghana It explores how poor rural health care is a strong contributory factor for high maternal and infant mortality rates in the country.
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