Needs assessment for home-based care and the strengthening of social support networks: the role of community care workers in rural South Africa.

Background: Community care workers (CCWs) in rural South Africa provide medical, personal, household, educational, and social care services to their clients. However, little understanding exists on how provision of services is approached within a household, taking into account available social support networks.

Objective: The aim of this study was to generate an understanding of the processes that underpin the provision of care by CCWs in rural households and their engagement with clients, primary caregivers (PCGs), and other members of the social support network.

Moving toward universal access to health and universal health coverage: a review of comprehensive primary health care in Suriname.

Objective: To provide an overview of comprehensive primary health care (CPHC) development and implementation in Suriname in peer-reviewed literature.

Methods: Building on work funded by the Teasdale-Corti Global Health Research Partnership Program/People's Health Movement, the authors searched MEDLINE, the Cochrane Library, and POPLINE for articles focused on CPHC within the Surinamese context. Two authors independently reviewed abstracts and then jointly reviewed the selected abstracts.

Community care workers, poor referral networks and consumption of personal resources in rural South Africa.

Although home-based care (HBC) programs are widely implemented throughout Africa, their success depends on the existence of an enabling environment, including a referral system and supply of essential commodities. The objective of this study was to explore the current state of client referral patterns and practices by community care workers (CCWs), in an evolving environment of one rural South African sub-district. Using a participant triangulation approach, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 17 CCWs, 32 HBC clients and 32 primary caregivers (PCGs).

Differences in antibiotic use and knowledge between adolescent and adult mothers in Ecuador.

Objectives:  To investigate the differences in antibiotic use and knowledge between adolescent and adult mothers of children under the age of 5 years in Ecuador.

Methods:  A cross sectional study was performed in four health centers and hospitals. Mothers of children under five years, seeking medical attention their child's upper respiratory tract infection (URI), were included.

Rights, knowledge, and governance for improved health equity in urban settings.

All three of the interacting aspects of daily urban life (physical environment, social conditions, and the added pressure of climate change) that affect health inequities are nested within the concept of urban governance, which has the task of understanding and managing the interactions among these different factors so that all three can be improved together and coherently. Governance is defined as: "the process of collective decision making and processes by which decisions are implemented or not implemented": it is concerned with the distribution, exercise, and consequences of power. Although there appears to be general agreement that the quality of governance is important for development, much less agreement appears to exist on what the concept really implies and how it should be used.