A SILVER award was presented to the Department of Health in Eden and supporting NPO FAMSA Karoo at the Impumelelo Gala Awards held in Cape Town recently for their Community Health Worker Model.
The model was tested in Bridgton in Oudtshoorn during 2015 and 2016 as a pilot site for the National Health Insurance.
“The Silver Impumelelo Award is a recognition and celebration of hard work, and sheer determination of a team to overcome all challenges and to find solutions for the challenges,” said Dr Helise Schumann, District Manager of Eden and Central Karoo Districts.
The focus was to develop a Community Health Worker (CHW) Model for rural settings that promotes community health and prevention of illness before it was presented at clinics. FAMSA Karoo was appointed as the service provider and provided primary care training for 20 community health workers. The main priorities were health promotion and pre- vention, self-management, health screening and referrals and basic care.
A total of 50 785 screenings were done, of which 3 636 people were referred to the clinic (7,1% of all screenings). Due to its success, the programme has been implemented across the Eden District and was rolled out to all the rural districts in 2016/2017. Since the pilot project, 800 trainees have completed the one year accredited training.
