Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS)

• Project Overview
• Objectives and Strategies
• Activities and Highlights
• Materials and Resources
• Future Plans

PROJECT OVERVIEW

In 2001, the Ghanaian Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) adopted the CHPS as a national strategy for promoting equitable, accessible, and quality community-based health services to Ghanaians. This CHPS program was developed as a result of an earlier collaborative effort among JHU/PCS, the Ministry of Health, and the Navrongo Health Research Center, which was aimed at systematizing and documenting the community-based approaches to health services delivery that had been implemented in the district. Successful implementation of CHPS requires skillful operation of health workers who cooperate and participate with community members in planning and delivering services. In 2001, to support this unique model of service delivery to rural populations, JHU/PCS developed two key documents: the CHPS Handbook and the CHPS implementation guide . With technical assistance from JHU/PCS, the CHPS strategy was introduced in 20 lead districts in the country. In 2002, CHPS is expanding to an additional 30 districts in Ghana.

OBJECTIVES/STRATEGIES

• Improve and expand community mobilization and participation skills for GHS staff.
• Improve behavior change communication (BCC) skills among community health officers and community members.
• To provide training to community health nurses and members of the District Health Management Teams (DHMT) in the CHPS process and community mobilization.

ACTIVITIES AND HIGHLIGHTS

• Production and distribution of CHPS handbooks to all 110 DHMTs, the GHS Directorate, Parliament, and NGOs.
• Production and distribution of the CHPS implementation guides .
• Production of training manuals and handbooks on community mobilization and PLA (participatory learning approaches) counseling skills for distribution to community nurses.
• Ten 6-day training sessions in community mobilization skills for participants from GHS, NGOs, and the District Assembly in the 20 CHPS lead districts.
• Initiation of the Community Decision System (CDS) pilot program in the Abura Asebu Kwamankese district of the central region. The program is aimed at developing a community-based system to collect and analyze community data to assist community members to engage meaningfully in health decision-making processes.
  

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

• 1,300 CHPS handbooks distributed.
• 1,200 CHPS implementation guides distributed.
• 2,000 Community Mobilization training manuals produced.
• 5,000 Community Mobilization handbooks produced.
• 350 people trained, comprised of representatives of GHS, NGOs, and the District Assembly in the 20 CHPS lead districts.

FUTURE PLANS

• Expansion of CHPS to 30 additional districts.
• Training of 75 "master trainers" in community mobilization. Participants will include 75 people from the original 350 trainees. Community level health communication tools such as Child Health Education and Survival Training (CHEST) kits for Child Health and Reproductive Health and Journey of Hope (JOH) for HIV/AIDS education will be used for this purpose.
• 15 trainings in Community Mobilization and Participation facilitated by master trainers.
• 10 trainings on use of the CHEST kit and JOH facilitated by master trainers.
• Incorporation of 20-minute Community Mobilization video into training sessions.
• Expansion of the CDS program to other communities.