Community Health Workers Roles and Responsibilities

Community Health Personnel

• A Community Health Officer (CHO) is a trained and oriented Community Health Nurse working in a CHPS zone and may be assigned to a community within the zone.
• Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) are non-salaried community members who are identified and trained to support CHOs in a community within the CHPS zone.

Community Health Management Committees

• Community Health Management Committees consist of community leaders with different competencies and responsibilities who volunteer to provide community-level guidance and mobilization for planning and delivering health activities.
• These committees also ensure the welfare of CHOs in their community.

CHPS Strategy

• CHPS is a national strategy to deliver essential community-based health services involving planning and service delivery with communities.
• Its primary focus is on communities in deprived sub-districts, aiming to bring health services close to the community.

CHPS Zone and Compound

• A CHPS Zone is a demarcated geographical area with up to 5000 persons or 750 households in densely populated areas.
• A CHPS Zone may be coterminous with electoral areas where feasible.
• A CHPS Compound refers to an approved structure consisting of a service delivery point and accommodation complex, both of which must be present.

Healthcare in Ghana Before CHPS

• Before the introduction of the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) system, 35% of Ghanaians had limited access to healthcare, especially in hard-to-reach communities.
• Many children died from preventable diseases such as malaria, diarrhea, measles, acute respiratory tract infection, and cholera.
• Maternal mortality was high due to delayed recognition of danger signs, lack of transport, and bad roads.

Introduction of Outreach Services

• The government introduced mobile clinics to improve access to preventive health services in rural communities.

The CHPS System

• The CHPS system was piloted in the Navrongo region of the Upper East region, one of the poorest and most difficult to reach areas of the country.
• A nurse was allocated to each community to live among the people and attend to their health needs.
• Community members were elected to serve as health volunteers or as members of health committees.
• The community provided accommodation for the nurses.

Outcome of CHPS

• The Navrongo Health Research Centre assessed the performance of CHPS over five years and found that it successfully reduced child mortality and improved basic health service coverage.