Beginning in 2007 with support and input from the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the World Bank, Future Generations has been actively facilitating and supporting a global systematic review of Community-Based Primary healthcare (CBPHC). To date, thousands of articles have been reviewed and over 650 articles have been included in the review of both child, and more recently added, maternal health interventions that have a community-based component.
The effort is being led by Dr. Henry Perry, a former Future Generations faculty member now at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH), with collaboration from Meike Schleiff, Assistant Professor and Director of Research at Future Generations and a doctoral candidate at JHSPH, and many others. The team is currently doing in-depth reviews of neonatal health, maternal health, and health equity with additional analyses to follow.
The study has identified a number of approaches with potential and evidence for high impact community-based work, including the importance of home visiting programs, community case management of child illnesses, participatory women’s groups, and utilization of mobile health teams to provide additional outreach services.
In May 2016, the findings of the systematic review were presented at the CORE Groupannual meeting, where a global network of practitioners focusing on improving maternal and child health got to review key findings and also provide feedback and discuss the way forward.
For more information about this exciting and unique systematic review, you can check out previous publications at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17441690903330305. You can also contact Meike Schleiff for more information.
Honoring the World’s Number One Healthcare Provider: Mothers
Mothers are the world’s primary healthcare providers, and the home is the world’s primary healthcare facility. Although formal health systems and facilities are necessary, effective work at the household level can both improve the overall health of populations and help the formal health system focus on those conditions that cannot be addressed by families and communities alone
Future Generations Graduate School has focused on strengthening the evidence base for community-based health through its experiences running programs and doing research with students, alumni, faculty, and partners. Central to this is the empowerment and education of mothers so that they have the knowledge and support to become more effective providers of child healthcare services as well as addressing many social determinants of health in their families and communities. Evidence of the impact of such efforts from around the world includes dramatic reductions in infant mortality rates, increased immunization rates, improved nutritional status, and many related social changes such as improved transportation and expansion of the voice of women in community life.
How can we move towards a more equitable and inclusive state of health for the world? There are myriad ways, but further supporting mothers is one of the most powerful. We know that primary healthcare interventions such as hand washing, breastfeeding, oral rehydration therapy, and use of insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) that can be implemented in homes and communities tend to be more equitably available to all households in communities, especially the most vulnerable and difficult to reach sub-population groups. We also know that, if families are bypassed by or cannot access healthcare services and knowledge, their health outcomes suffer. These situations are deeply unjust, often avoidable, and can undermine efforts to move the health of the entire global population forward by leaving sub-populations vulnerable to infectious diseases and by putting strain on the formal health system through costly and often avoidable interventions.
A mother’s job is not just during business hours, or just when she feels like it. We honor every mother who contributes to the health of her children, family, and community every single day. Here is a way you can help show that respect and appreciation, too: This Mother’s Day, please consider shopping on smile.amazon.com By using the Future.Edu account. A percentage of what you spend will come back to Future Generations so that we can continue to support mothers throughout the world. Use this link: https://smile.amazon.com/ch/20-4093450. Thank you. Happy Mother’s Day.