Key community eye health messages

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Community health workers in eye care delivery

• Community health workers are health care providers who live in the community they serve.

• They have enormous potential to extend health care services to communities living in remote areas and to marginalised and vulnerable populations.

• They can encourage uptake of eye health services by creating awareness, providing health education, delivering diagnostic or clinical care, and collecting data and maintaining records.

Community-based monitoring of healthcare

• includes a set of activities or processes conducted by communities to understand the availability, accessibility, quality, and effectiveness of the services

• provides an efficient feedback mechanism and ensures that service providers are accountable to the service users

• includes tools such as community scorecards, patient satisfaction surveys, social audits, resources and budget tracking, and complaint and grievance mechanisms.

Engaging the community in eye care planning calls for

• building trust with the community, establishing rapport, and meeting community groups – formally and informally

• understanding the needs of the community, the issues faced, and gaps in services

• involving the community in planning agenda and pursuing meaningful strategies to address those needs.