What Do Health Workers Need? Great Tools.

It’s World Health Worker week. Think about it – service providers, each and every day, need to be able to deal with patients of all types, such as:

The worrier – clients who are worried about change – perhaps they want to get tested for HIV, or use a modern method of family planning, or learn more about malaria prevention, but the effort they have to undertake seems insurmountable. 

The veteran – clients who, perhaps have been using good behaviors for so long that they have gotten a bit lax in adherence.

The nay-sayer – those who are just negative about being at the clinic, listening to new information and resentful of the service provider telling him or her what to do!

The enthusiast – here’s someone who is excited about everything – the problem is getting them to focus.

And there are so many more types out there. 

In a way, service providers have to be psychologists, fortune tellers, experienced medical professionals and mothers/fathers/sisters/aunties all at the same time. They need to tune in to the needs of each client so carefully because after all, the end goal is better health.

So the better their tools are, the better they can perform. Here are a few of the tools in the Health COMpass that have stood the test of time, and a couple of new ones that we have recently received:

Toolkit for Transition of Care and Other Services for Adolescents Living with HIV
This toolkit allows the adolescent and the family/caregiver to participate and guide the transition process based upon the adolescent’s readiness. In addition, it allows the HCP/CCP to support the adolescent during the transition process to maximize resiliency, minimize risk factors, and promote positive personal growth.

Providing Reproductive Health Services to Young Married Women and First-time Parents in West Africa

Young married women and first-time parents face a unique set of challenges to living healthy sexual and reproductive lives. This training aims to give health care providers the knowledge and skills they need to meet the needs of these groups. It is designed for use in francophone West Africa, where a significant proportion of adolescent girls aged 15–19 and young women aged 20–24 are married or living in union, but it can easily be adapted for other settings.

Counseling Your Teen Clients About Long Acting Reversible Contraceptives
This session demonstrates how incorporating youth development principles when counseling teens about long acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs) can enhance teen knowledge, perception, and use of LARCs.

Promoting the Health of Men who Have Sex with Men Worldwide: A Training Curriculum for Providers
This tool aims to arm local community groups serving gay men and other men who have sex with men (MSM) with the ability to independently implement training programs to build cultural and clinical competency among healthcare providers serving their communities.

 Helping Health Workers Learn
Perhaps the best known of the service provider manuals, the Hesperian Foundation has continually updated this manual and it is a standard in the field.

That’s just a few of many resources in the Health COMpass – click here to see a fuller list. 

And don’t forget  – wherever you live – to thank the health workers you know for the dedication, patience, and expertise.