Ghana: Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS)

• Overview
• Partners
• Target Audiences
• Objectives
• Outputs

Overview

Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) has been adopted by the Ghana Health Services (GHS) as a national strategy for promoting accessible, quality and equitable services to all Ghanaians--particularly those in rural areas. JHU/PCS has played a key role in CHPS and has taken the lead in the development of training and resource materials and in the training of community health nurses and District Health Management Teams (DHMT).

The CHPS model is based on the results of four years of field experimentation and demonstration by the Ghana Ministry of Health and the Navrongo Health Research Center's Community Health and Family Planning project, with technical assistance from the Population Council and USAID. The experience at Navrongo demonstrated that the CHPS model is effective.

The JHU/PCS Ghana Field Office has been involved in the realization of the CHPS model since its inception in 1998. In partnership with the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service, the JHU/PCS role under CHPS is focused on building community entry skills for health providers and strengthening elements of community participation in the initiative. PRIME 2 compliments this function through training in outreach service delivery for primary health care. The Population Council is responsible for monitoring and evaluation of CHPS.

To complement on-going CHPS activities, JHU/PCS, in collaboration with Save the Children, developed a health information tool that allows for planning and implementation of activities at the community level. In 2002, SECI, a tool developed by Save the Children/Bolivia, was customized under the name Community Decisions System (CDS) for Ghana. As a community mobilization tool, CDS helps to build the health competency of CHPS communities. It allows the community and the health system to analyze local health data, plan health-related activities, and evaluate their achievements based upon information jointly generated by the health system and the community. Initiated in 2002, CDS will be implemented in 2 CHPS districts and evaluated in October 2003 for eventual use on a national scale. HCP will also assist the MOH in examining data generated by CDS over time to look at how communities use the data to improve the health of community members.

Partners

• MOH
• Ghana Health Service
• Prime 2
• Population Council
• Save the Children

Target Audiences

Health providers and community residents

Objectives

CHPS is a process of health care provision in which Community Health Officers (CHOs) and community members are actively engaged as partners in the delivery of primary health care and family planning services. The goal of CHPS is to effectively mobilize community residents and resources to increase coverage, improve responsiveness and deliver more equitable and cost-effective health care to Ghana's rural residents. Specifically, it's objectives are:

• Improve community mobilization, participatory approaches, and behavior change communication skills of the CHOs and their supervisors.
• Strengthen processes that enable community members to engage in the health planning and assessments in their own community.
• Improved quality of primary health services in rural and peri-urban Ghana.
• Build capacity of District Health Management Teams (DHMT) in community mobilization skills and use of PLA tools.
• Build capacity of 38 training teams from the Health Education Unit (HEU), School of Public Health, and Community Health Nursing School Tutors.
• Build capacity of 132 CHOs and their Supervisors and 180 CHOs from Year-1 Districts and their Supervisors from Year-2 Districts in the use of the CHEST Kit and the Journey of Hope communication tools.
• Increase CHPS community members' and CHOs' ability to analyze and use health information to address community health problems.

Outputs

• Community Health Education Skills Toolkit (CHEST Kit) for family planning and child health.
• Journey of Hope (JOH) Tool for HIV/AIDS education.
• CHPS Advocacy Package to publicize the CHPS model to policy makers at the national and district level.
• National Lead Districts Strategy.
• CHPS Implementation Guide.
• Handbook and Activity Cards for community health workers and leaders.
• Community Mobilization and Participation Training Manual.
• IPC/C training manual.
• CHPS monitoring and supervision manual.
• Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) training manual, video, and handbook for health workers.
• Health officers skills in PLA and communication techniques to facilitate entry into the community.
• Production and dissemination of CDS training guide and visual aids for national use.
• Implementation of CDS in two CHPS districts (population coverage ~ 25,000).
• Evaluation of CDS with detailed recommendations for a national CDS adoption plan.

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