Roles played by THPs in supporting social development activities.

Post by Ivan

 

THPs play a significant role in social development activities that range from providing counselling services to clients to providing education awareness to the community on appropriate herbs to be used for different ailments. Some noted that their services to those living positively with HIV and AIDS is limited to only those that would have come out in the open and disclosed their status to the public. THPs also value their participation in community activities where they share their experiences  such as during the District AIDS Action Committee meetings.

THPs were found to be contributors to community development because they are the entry point by the biomedical health practitioners in programmes such as HIV/AIDS campaigns, hygiene, sanitation, immunization campaigns, and malaria control (mosquito net distribution). THPs are considered as advisors to community development work such as construction of community schools and roads. 

THPs share a  cell phone message at a THP conference

 

They provide services to their clients within the community at reasonable costs, refer clients presenting with signs and symptoms of HIV for VCT to health facilities, are used by development partners for community mobilization in other community development programmes such as child immunization, malaria prevention and control programmes. To those that disclose their status and are on conventional medical treatment the THPs noted that their major roles involve encouraging their clients to adhere to prescribed medicines and providing other traditional medicinal options to manage and treat opportunistic infections such as diarrhoea. The THPs explained that they do not interrupt the treatment cycles that would have been prescribed by conventional doctors but they complement them.

However, most THPs said they do not keep well organised clients data. They simply invite the patient to come back; if they don’t the THPs would not make a follow up. Only one percent acknowledges that they do keep a register of their patients and information such as names, Date of birth, diagnosed ailments and the medications provided. There was agreement among the THPs that the most common ailments presented by older persons range from Back aches, urinary blocking, diarrhoea whilst the younger demography presents HIV related illness and other common STIs. They noted that older people prefer THPs because they began utilising traditional medicine well before the advent of modern medicine to their communities.

The community has a lot of faith, trust and respect for THPs. The services provided by THPs is seen as life saver by the older persons and the community appreciates that working with older persons needs patience as they need a lot of care and support.

Strengthening collaboration between traditional health practitioners and bio-medical health practitioners

Post by Ivan Kintu

A recent study by URAA found that THPs are first point of contact for treatment (most trusted by their clients) in most rural communities and this provide an opportunity for THPs to provide services such as HTC/HCT if their capacity is developed and provided with testing supplies.

The study also found that there are still lots of mistrust by BHPs on roles of THPs which result in lack of reciprocal referrals between THPs and BHPs. However, there can be opportunities to promote collaboration if the referral is not centered on bio-medicalization: i.e. focusing on non scientific issues like counseling, and adherence support.

 The nurses share  a moment of learning with THPs & TBAs at Iganga

Need for exploring how THPs can effectively collaborate with BHPs in key HIV prevention strategies such as Male Circumcision and PMTCT.

Capacity of TBAs should be built to provide services beyond delivery to include comprehensive reproductive service provision which can be effective in preventing maternal deaths in rural areas.

In order to improve the relationship between THPs and BHPs it is critical to identify where exactly do THPs fit in the wider heath management model for the particular country. For example, community health workers are clearly part of specific level in the health management model and therefore