IPCHS. Integrated People-Centred Health Services

Publications

This growing repository holds WHO documents, scientific publications, policy documents, implementation reports, presentations and others with information and insights about integrated people-centred health services. Share your publication by clicking “Add publication”.

Oct. 7, 2019 Africa

A qualitative appraisal of stakeholders’ perspectives of a community-based primary health care program in rural Ghana

The Ghana Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) initiative is a national strategy for improving access to primary health care services for underserved communities. Following a successful trial in the North Eastern part of the country, CHPS was adopted as Ghana’s flagship programme for achieving the Universal Health Coverage. Recent empirical evidence suggests, however, that scale-up of CHPS has not necessarily replicated the successes of the pilot study. This study examines the community’s perspective of the performance of CHPS and how the scale up could potentially align with the original experimental study.

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Oct. 3, 2019 Africa

Integrating services for impact and sustainability: a proof-of-concept project in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Integration of services in primary health care settings can provide mother/baby pairs with all required services at one visit. This study aimed to evaluate a proof of concept, quality improvement (QI) intervention to strengthen well-child service provision and integration with maternal health services in five rural clinics in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

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April 18, 2019 Africa

Community health extension program of Ethiopia, 2003–2018: successes and challenges toward universal coverage for primary healthcare services

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Dec. 12, 2018 Africa

Does supportive supervision enhance community health worker motivation? A mixed-methods study in four African countries

Supportive supervision is an important element of community health worker (CHW) programmes and is believed to improve CHW motivation and performance. A group supervision intervention, which included training and mentorship of supervisors, was implemented in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Mozambique. In three of the countries, this was combined with individual and/or peer supervision. A mixed-methods implementation study was conducted to assess the effect of the supervision intervention on CHWs’ perceptions of supervision and CHW motivation-related outcomes. The study suggests that there is potential for integrating supportive group supervision models in CHW programmes. A combination of group with individual or ...

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Nov. 21, 2018 Africa

An integrative review of potential enablers and barriers to accessing mental health services in Ghana

The importance of accessible mental health treatment is a global concern, particularly when one in five people will experience a mental health problem in their lifespan. This is no less important in Ghana; however, no studies have yet attempted to appraise and synthesise the potential enablers and barriers to accessing services in Ghana. The aim of this integrative review is therefore to identify and synthesise existing evidence on the barriers and enablers to accessing mental health services in Ghana.

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Oct. 1, 2018 Africa

Building capacity in primary care rehabilitation clinical practice guidelines: a South African initiative

The large number of South Africans with disability who cannot access good quality rehabilitation presents a public health and human rights challenge. A cost-effective, efficient approach is required to address this. Implementation of high-quality, contextually relevant clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) could be a solution; however, this requires significant investment in innovative capacity-building.

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Sept. 16, 2018 Africa

Implementing health care reform: implications for performance of public hospitals in central Ethiopia

Understanding the way health care reforms have succeeded or failed thus far would help policy makers cater continued reformefforts in the future and provides insight into possible levels of improvementin the health care system. This work aims to assess and describe the implications of health care reform on the performance of public hospitals in central Ethiopia.

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Sept. 14, 2018 Africa

Public–private partnerships in practice: collaborating to improve health finance policy in Ghana and Kenya

Social health insurance (SHI), one mechanism for achieving universal health coverage, has become increasingly important in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as they work to achieve this goal. Although small private providers supply a significant proportion of healthcare in LMICs, integrating these providers into SHI systems is often challenging. Public–private partnerships in health are one way to address these challenges, but we know little about how these collaborations work, how effectively, and why. 

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June 28, 2018 Africa

Scaling community-based services in Gauteng, South Africa: A comparison of three workforce-planning scenarios

The introduction of community-based services through community health workers is an opportunity to redefine the approach and practice of primary health care. Based on bestpractice community oriented primary care (COPC), a COPC planning toolkit has been developed to model the creation of a community-based tier in an integrated district health system

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April 2, 2018 Africa

Ghana's community-based primary health care: Why women and children are ‘disadvantaged’ by its implementation

Policy analysis on why women and children in low- and middle- income settings are still disadvantaged by access to appropiate care despite Primary Health Care (PHC) programmes implementation is limited. Drawing on the street- level bureaucracy theory, this article explored how and why frontline providers (FLP) actions on their own and in interaction with health system factors shape Ghana´s community-based PHC implementation to the disadvantage of women and children accessing and using health services. 

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