Community participation in primary health care.

Abstract

The advantages of a community participation approach in primary health care (PHC) are as follows: a community participation approach is a cost effective way to extend a health care system to the geographical and social periphery of a country; communities that begin to understand their health status objectively rather than fatalistically may be moved to take a series of preventive measures; communities that invest labor, time, money, and materials in health promoting activities are more committed to the use and maintenance of the things they produce, such as water supplies; health education is most effective in the context of village activities; and community health workers, if they are well chosen, have the confidence of the people. An error made in early efforts at community participation was to assume that villages were uniformly free from internal exploitation. Some are cohesive moral communities, but in other there is grievous exploitation of landless laborers by landowners and shopkeepers. Villages may be divided by caste or ethnic origin. Political organization of villages may be democratic or they may be governed in an authoritarian manner. In politically unstable countries where the central government has a rather tenuous control over the rural periphery, genuine community initiatives may be viewed as threatening and may not receive official encouragement. Social groups within communities may be tremendous assets. In planning the community participation aspects of primary health care, the collaboration of an anthropologist or rural sociologist with field experience is recommended. Promoting community participation is a skill which must be taught to community health workers, and backed up with support services. The genuine commitment of medical staff to community self help is crucial to the motivation process. Motivation within the community quickly breaks down if materials, expertise, and salaries fail to arrive when promised. Community activities are most successfully promoted with reference to the people's own ideas of purity/pollution, cleanliness/dirtiness, and health/illness. Guidelines for successful community participation include: projects undertaken should be ones that the community has identified as a priority; demonstrations and activities to promote health might be linked with agricultural initiatives, adult literacy campaigns, or programs from other sectors; and it is necessary to make sure the community fully understands all the costs in labor, time, money, and materials. If projects or longterm community health programs fail, a quick, simple analysis should be made of constraints that may be operating. Some points to be covered are suggested.