The role of the farm lay health worker in the rural Western Cape Province

Public demands have forced countries to explore new ways of rendering primary health care to reach the poor who are not within reach of the modern health care systems. New categories of health care personnel, like lay health workers emerged. There are vast differences in the roles of these lay healt...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Van der Merwe, Bernice Jacqueline
Other Authors: Mavundla, T. R.
Format: Others
Language:en
Published: 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:Van der Merwe, Bernice Jacqueline (2013) The role of the farm lay health worker in the rural Western Cape Province, University of South Africa, Pretoria, <http://hdl.handle.net/10500/15390>
http://hdl.handle.net/10500/15390
Description
Summary:Public demands have forced countries to explore new ways of rendering primary health care to reach the poor who are not within reach of the modern health care systems. New categories of health care personnel, like lay health workers emerged. There are vast differences in the roles of these lay health workers as was revealed with an extensive literature search. The phenomenology qualitative research method was used to investigate perceptions of farm lay health workers regarding their roles in rural areas. A convenience, non-random sample (N=5) was used for focus group discussions and in-depth interviews to collect data. The latter revealed five main themes associated with the role of farm lay health workers: (1) community link; (2) carer; (3) community developer; (4) counsellor and (5) role model. Guidelines were formulated to enhance the role of lay health workers in the rural Western Cape Province and to improve the quality of care to rural communities === Health Studies === M.A. (Health Studies)