What Empowered Community can do for Tb Care? Experience from India

Abstract

The community engagement strategies of Tuberculosis programmes prioritized on increasing case finding. There are limited evidences on -what an empowered community can do for Tuberculosis care? An innovative community empowerment model was developed and implemented in districts of India as "District Tuberculosis Forum" (DTF) under Project Axshya to engage and empower community. The paper here describes the contributions made by empowered forum members. We collected quantitative data from 77 districts for activities conducted during June 2013 to July 2014. The analysis is focused on activities conducted within patient centric, community and programme centric approaches. Empowered community members sensitized over 9000 TB patients on their rights and responsibilities and generated resources to support nearly 700 patients. The model is promising with key stakeholders at district level coming forward to get involved in activities supporting Tuberculosis prevention and care with an aim to END -TB.

Health-seeking behaviour, knowledge, and stigma around Tuberculosis: A mixed-method study with specific vulnerable population groups in India

“…Community engagement is one key to expanding reach and sustaining TB-related interventions [33,34]. Studies suggest that a holistic community empowerment model harnessing the potential of community-based structures can offer signi cant gains in increasing tuberculosis case nding, especially in remote areas and rural areas [35][36][37]. When the population is misinformed about the disease and its modes of transmission that result in myths around TB, fear of being ostracized and nondisclosure of their condition, persons with TB often suffer from low self-esteem, depression, and poor quality of life [38], leading to a heightened burden on social and health systems.…”

Operational research within a Global Fund supported tuberculosis project in India: why, how and its contribution towards change in policy and practice

“…These studies were besides the studies undertaken in OR training courses and KAP surveys. They pertained to documenting the experiences of active/enhanced case finding in various settings of the country [19–22], describing the various problems identified while servicing the binocular microscopes used by the RNTCP [23], documenting the effects of sensitizing TB patients on their rights and responsibilities as outlined in the ‘patient charter’ [24], using open access technologies to collect data for OR studies using the project’s supervision and monitoring mechanisms [25] and assessing the status of TB control in Indian Prisons [26]. …”