Sharing Histories—a transformative learning/teaching method to empower community health workers to support health behavior change of mothers

Human Resources for Health

Methodology

Laura C. Altobelli¹ 

[1] Future Generations University, Franklin, USA;Future Generations, Lima, Peru;Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru;

关键词: Sharing histories;    Autobiographical memories;    Narrative communication;    Health behavior change;    Health promotion;    Community health workers;    Community health worker training;    Health promoter training;    Community health programs;    Global health;    International health;    Maternal and child health;    Maternal health;    Child health;    Community participation;    Women’s empowerment;    Developing countries;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12960-017-0231-2

 received in 2016-08-19, accepted in 2017-08-07,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundOne of the keys to improving health globally is promoting mothers’ adoption of healthy home practices for improved nutrition and illness prevention in the first 1000 days of life from conception. Customarily, mothers are taught health messages which, even if simplified, are hard to remember. The challenge is how to promote learning and behavior change of mothers more effectively in low-resource settings where access to health information is poor, educational levels are low, and traditional beliefs are strong.MethodsIn addressing that challenge, a new learning/teaching method called “Sharing Histories” is in development to improve the performance of female community health workers (CHWs) in promoting mothers’ behaviors for maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH).ResultsThis method builds self-confidence and empowerment of CHWs in learning sessions that are built on guided sharing of their own memories of childbearing and child care. CHWs can later share histories with the mother, building her trust and empowerment to change. For professional primary health care staff who are not educators, Sharing Histories is simple to learn and use so that the method can be easily incorporated into government health systems and ongoing CHW programs.ConclusionsI present here the Sharing Histories method, describe how it differs from other social and behavior change methods, and discuss selected literature from psychology, communications, and neuroscience that helps to explain how and why this method works as a transformative tool to engage, teach, transform, and empower CHWs to be more effective change agents with other mothers in their communities, thereby contributing to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017