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Sightsavers' approach to making health services inclusive for everyone

Sightsavers
April 2019

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Sightsavers has produced a new film that sets out our work to make health care services accessible and inclusive for everyone. It focuses on our programmes in Bhopal, India and Nampula, Mozambique. This highlights how we work and share learnings globally, but also shows how programmes can be made locally relevant by working with partners with direct experience.

The film showcases some of the people who work hard to make our inclusive health programmes a success, from Sightsavers experts and government health workers to leaders of disabled people’s organisations.

To find out more our inclusive health work and how we are developing best practice in terms of inclusive health programmes, visit our website: https://www.sightsavers.org/disability/health/

Ensuring universal access to eye health in urban slums in the Global South: the case of Bhopal (India).

PREGEL, Andrea
et al
October 2017

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In the context of its Urban Eye Health Programme in Bhopal (India), Sightsavers launched a pilot approach aimed at developing an Inclusive Eye Health (IEH) model and IEH Minimum Standards.

Accessibility audits were conducted in a tertiary eye hospital and four primary vision centres located within urban slums, addressing the accessibility of physical infrastructures, communication and service provision. The collection and analysis of disaggregated data inform the inclusion strategy and provide a baseline to measure the impact of service provision. Trainings of eye health staff and sensitisation of decision makers on accessibility, universal design, disability and gender inclusion are organised on a regular basis.

A referral network is being built to ensure participation of women, people with disabilities and other marginalised groups, explore barriers at demand level, and guarantee wider access to eye care in the community. Finally, advocacy interventions will be developed to raise awareness in the community and mainstream disability and gender inclusion within the public health sector.

Evaluation of the feasibility and acceptability of the ‘Care for Stroke’ intervention in India, a smartphone-enabled, carer-supported, educational intervention for management of disability following stroke

SURESHKUMAR, K
MURTHY, G V S
NATARAJAN, S
GOENKA, S
KUPER, H
February 2016

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This study aimed to identify operational issues encountered by study participants in using the ‘Care for Stroke’ intervention and to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention. ‘Care for Stroke’ is a smartphone-enabled, educational intervention for management of physical disabilities following stroke. It is delivered through a web-based, smartphone enabled application (app). It includes inputs from stroke rehabilitation experts in a digitised format. Sixty stroke survivors discharged from hospital in Chennai, South India, and their caregivers participated in the study. The preliminary intervention was field-tested with 30 stroke survivors for 2 weeks. The finalised intervention was provided to a further 30 stroke survivors to be used in their homes with support from their carers for 4 weeks. Field-testing identified operational difficulties related to connectivity, video-streaming, picture clarity, quality of videos, and functionality of the application. Assessment was carried out by direct observation and short interview questionnaires. 

 

 

Evolution of community physiotherapy in India

RAJAN, Pavithra
2014

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Despite the urgent need for physiotherapy services for underprivileged communities, Community Physiotherapy is not a sought-after specialisation in India. Physiotherapists tend to serve in institutions rather than at community level, as a result of which this field of healthcare has stagnated. This article, based on an interview with one of the country’s eminent community physiotherapists, gives a first person account of the evolution of community physiotherapy in India and provides qualitative inputs to deal with the prevalent issues. While the need for services has increased, there has been no matching growth in the pool of physiotherapists willing to work in the community. Several recommendations have been made, including changes in approach to community physiotherapy by both physiotherapists as well as community organisations in India.

Barriers to sustainable access of children and families to ART centres in rural India : a report on operations research conducted in Maharashtra and Manipur

INDIA HIV/AIDS ALLIANCE
December 2009

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This report identifies barriers that children and families face in accessing anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centres in rural India. The report also seeks to find solutions to these barriers based on an operations research conducted in Maharashtra Pradesh and Manipur. Operations research objectives: * To build an understanding among policy makers of the barriers faced by children and caregivers accessing ART services in rural communities. * To assess and highlight a basic minimum level of standards for ART centres in terms of adequacy, quality and timeliness of support needed. * To explore opportunities for linkages with state and district level departments and/or local self-governing institutions

Operational guide for implementation of IICCHAA project

INDIAN INITIATIVE OF CHILD CENTRED HIV & AIDS APPROACH (IICCHAA)
2008

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This operational guide provides a broad direction for implementing memory work in India in the field, based on a communication needs assessment carried out as part of the Indian Initiative for Child Centred Approaches to HIV & AIDS (IICCHAA). The guide is divided into two sections: how to roll out the training effectively at field level and some basic information about HIV and AIDS

Continuum of care for HIV-positive women accessing programs to prevent parent-to-child transmission : findings from India

MAHENDRA, Vaishali S
et al
2007

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This is the report of a diagnostic study in 2005 to provide an evidence base to strengthen the national Indian prevention of parent-to-child transmission (PPTCT) initiative. The key research questions were: What are the treatment, care, and support needs of HIV-positive women and what services do the women utilize to meet their needs? What are the different ways (clinic-based, community-based, etc) to link HIV-positive women and their families with treatment and care services? The study indicated that linkages between PPTCT and HIV care services, as well as PPTCT and reproductive health services, were limited

A visible form of charity

KALE, Rajendra
1994

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This article is in response to a BBC documentary and the author suggests that health camps, which is one way of searching India' s rural patients, perhaps have different motives. The author suggests that most are done for charity and good will but they are only temporary and have inadequate follow-up

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