by iphindia | Oct 15, 2021 | Anusthana: Scaling Implementation of Tobacco Control Laws, Blog, Chronic Health Conditions, DEEP, Events, Latest Updates
Thirteen members of the Chronic Conditions and Public Policies cluster at IPH actively participated in the three day conference of the 5th National Conference on Tobacco or Health (NCTOH). This three-day scientific programme focused on diverse public health issues and challenges in tobacco control at the national and sub-national level along with context-specific solutions for their replication towards achieving tobacco free environments. There were plenary sessions, panel discussions, symposia, oral presentation, poster discussion, and workshops on many aspects of tobacco control which will pave the way towards building effective policy and program.
Dr Upendra Bhojani, Riddhi Dsouza, Anand Kumar, Kanika Chaudhary, Ketki Shah, Dr Pragati Hebbar, Vivek Dsouza, Dr Chandrashekar Kottagi, Kranthi Vysyaraju, Aishwarya Ashok, Praveen Rao, Achyutha Nagara Gadde and Kumaran P from the Institute of Public Health (IPH), Bengaluru actively participated in this 3-day national conference held between September 25 and 27, 2021.
Dr Upendra Bhojani, Director, IPH Bengaluru on Day 1 (September 25, 2021) was in a panel discussion and presented on “How should we approach commercial determinant of health?”, he was part of the plenary session on September 26, 2021 on “Emerging Issues in Tobacco Control: Contextualising Global Interventions” and he presented on “Tobacco Industry Interference”.
Dr Pragati Hebbar made two oral presentations- “Implementation’ of tobacco control policies in LMICs – a realist synthesis to explain the process and its facilitators and barriers” and the second, “LifeFirst: Impact of a school-based tobacco- and supari-cessation intervention among adolescents in Mumbai, India.”
This national conference was a boost to tobacco control efforts by the amalgamation of tobacco control professionals, health programme managers, public health experts, civil society advocates, academicians and researchers of various clinical and non-clinical disciplines from different states across the country under one roof who shared their contextual experiences and best practices in tobacco control which was aimed to ultimately lead to advancing tobacco control in the country.
To get a glimpse of the 5th NCTOH click: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drv30sDRoTU
by iphindia | Nov 23, 2015 | Blog, Latest Updates
Dr. Arun Jithendra, Dr. Praveen Aivalli and Dr. Samantha Lobbo, attended a four day regional course on Good Health Research Practice (GHRP) by the Regional Training Center, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia from July 27th – 30th, 2015.
The regional course on Good Health Research Practice was jointly organized by the TDR, (the Special program for Research and Training in Tropical diseases) and Regional Training Center Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. The course had participants with diverse backgrounds from countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia and India. The facilitators for the course were Varalakshmi Elango and Patricia Henley from TDR; Yodi Mahendradhata and Riris Andono Ahmad from Regional Training Center, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM).
The aim of the course was to guide the participants towards having a standardized research protocol that could be used in newer avenues of public health research like implementation research. The course was spread over 4 days with modules comprising of lectures, discussions and group activities. The following topics were covered as the part of the course:
- Principles of research ethics and quality
- Study planning and management
- Informed consent
- Tools for data collection
- Tools for study conduct and quality assurance
- Study sites and study team
- Organization breakdown structure and Delegation log
- Study site checklist
- Data management
- Quality system
- Evaluating the research
- Reporting and Dissemination
The uniqueness of the course lay in the fact that each team were asked to bring their own research protocol. Each group went through each topic of the course viewing it through the lens of their own research protocol. This led to an enriching experience of self-reflection, identifying gaps if any, discuss solution to plug these gaps which we could then implement in our respective projects. The lectures were made interactive by case vignettes during each session which encouraged to bring about different viewpoints that further enhanced the understanding of each topic. Presentations of each protocol helped us understand the varying contexts in which each team was working and helped us realize that there is no single fit solution for even similar problems that could exist in different contexts. Overall the course was a good first step to start looking towards developing standards in newer areas of public health research which could potentially improve the quality of the research being carried out.
by iphindia | Aug 13, 2015 | Blog, ePHM-Advance, Latest Updates, Short Course
As we all know and recognise that community health workers (CHW) are the part of the community and have a significant role to play for our health improvement. There is plenty of scientific evidence wherein community involvement has increased the reach and impact of health systems. This works for communicable and non-communicable disease programmes as well as health promotion and prevention (TB, malaria and HIV care and prevention). I strongly believe that the success of pulse-Polio programme, was immensely contributed to CHW and similarly we could say that the TB-DOT programme has its success attributed to CHW. It has become clear that their support have unique advantages including their closeness with the community, their ability to communicate through people’s own culture and language and also to understand the needs of the communities and their ability to mobilize the community members.
Based on my experience with the CHW, I feel following are some of the objectives for their involvement into any programme:
1. They have acces
s to the target community, as they are from the community and have acceptability within the community.
2. Bridges the gap between the community and programme
3. Increases outreach for the programme
4. Community empowerment
5. Prompt response for any emergency need of the community
6. Facilitate improvement in surveillance and monitoring of any programme.
7. Facilitates in community mobilization for any activity.
Our government has acknowledged their contribution to the improvement of health status. I could easy quote an example from India, like ASHA (Accredited Social Health Associate) are local volunteers who are recruited through panchayat system and Village Health Committee
Under National Health Mission Programme (NRHM) with specific selection criteria. Following their recruitment, they are imparted training on regular basis for various programmes. For eg. in malaria programme, they are responsible for mobilizing community to accept the Indoor Residual Spray (IRS) and Long Lasting Insecticide Nets (LLINs) and also how to diagnose the case by using Rapid Diagnostic Treatment (RDT) kit, preparation of blood smear/slide for further investigation etc. They are also involved in collecting data from the villages for further assessment by the programme managers. Their performance is assessed from time to time by the state/district team and accordingly they are paid their incentives.
However, I have experienced that it was difficult to sustain them for a longer duration and we came across the following few challenges in the programme:
● Lack of supportive supervision and motivational activities.
● Overloaded with activities of multiple programmes;
● Logistic and supply management for various programmes;
● Acceptance by the community;
● Dependency of community on volunteers;
● Timely payment of performance linked incentive through single window system;
We felt that these challenges be addressed jointly by the community and the government authorities to sustain them for the benefit of the programme. Few suggestions include; a CHW should be assigned to manageable number of households instead of villages to avoid overburden of work; to provide integrated training; community could also contribute in supporting CHW through motivational programmes including honouring them and acknowledging their work from time-to-time. Having said this, we still cannot see a programme without their involvement and it would not be out of place to mention that the success of any health programme primarily depends on the these community volunteer.
Jatinder Chhatwal was a student of e-learning course in Public Health Management(ePHM) conducted by Institute of Public Health, Bangalore, India.
Disclaimer: IPH blogs provide a platform for ePHM students to share their reflections on different public health topics. The views expressed here are solely those of the authors and not necessarily represent the views of IPH.
![Where Do I Begin…..]()
by iphindia | Aug 6, 2012 | Blog
Where Do I Begin…
to tell the stories of urban poverty…
the grimmest tales that tell of what the ‘We’ do to the ‘we’… Where do I start…?
(To be sung to theme tune of Love Story)
Sometimes I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry………
This in an era of experts helping us towards reaching the millennium development goals……
My week began with two field visits with our ‘girls’ (community health assistants) to homes in K.G Halli. I’m sharing these stories because I think they give faces to the graphs linking urbanisation and poverty…..catastrophic health expenditure in 2012.
The first house was probably 10 feet square. Lined against one wall, were the total belongings of this 7 membered family,trunks, blankets, clothes, a stove, and assorted vessels. The youngest entrant in the family is tiny, all of 40 days. Josephine, our CHA, informed me that the mother, Shahina (name changed) had received 4 bottles of blood, while delivering this little one. Shahina’s husband, roughly 35 years old, prematurely aged is a wall painter, often out of work. Their older children, aged 14, 10, 8, 6 were lined up like sausages, with the father, sitting up at one end. Hastily, they drew out a mat to seat us and as always offered us refreshments. On enquiry we found everyone was fasting because of the holy month of Ramdan. Their problem was, they wanted no more children. It turned out that when Shahina delivered, she could not undergo a tubectomy because it would extend her hospital stay (and who would look after the family?) So, the staff fairly forcefully suggested the insertion of an intrauterine contraceptive device (IUCD). Shahina now has to look after the same family with profuse bleeding and a constant backache. It appears that our family planning services, far from a cafeteria approach really cannot meet the needs of an individual women.
Next we saw Aasha (Name Changed) pregnant for the fourth time with three little boys. She’s 2 months overdue her period and wants to abort this baby because she has had enough. Her husband to, probably not knowing the repercussions of such a procedure, both physical and psychological is urging her towards an Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP). The only thing holding her back so far has been the cost. She cannot afford to pay the 600Rs. Suggested in the nearby govt. centre. Aasha is thin, anaemic and probably representative of the chronic malnutrition or hunger situation that our country is screaming about. I ask her whether she is eating properly and she says, “I’m just so tired amma, I don’t have the energy to eat”. Interestingly Aasha is a Tamil speaker who has brought to the centre by her Muslim neighbour who speaks both Urdu and Tamil. Getting all these details is always in K.G Halli a three way translation discussion.
Our final halt for the morning takes us to the house of a young woman who is carrying on, despite all. Her father passed on three years ago, after “ keeping everything ready for her marriage” , simple kitchen utensils, a stove, a bed….. But he did not prepare her for a time she would need to fend for herself. Her younger brother committed suicide three months ago after a short- lived “love- marriage”….we do not know why, and now she and her mother have no source of income. The house, smelling of garlic from round the corner, is full of these pods as the two women peel four kilos a day for the royal sum of sixty rupees. There is a small bright lamp in this house with the oppressive atmosphere of unexpressed grief, in the shape of a young 12 year old boy, her cousin, who stays with them and helps with all the chores and running around…….His cheeky wit and quick answers bring andwering smiles from all of us……
And we walk back to the centre…….
to be continued…Where Do I Begin (part-2)
![Where Do I Begin…..]()
by iphindia | Jun 6, 2012 | Latest Updates
Mr. Dayananda Swamy, the District Accounts Manager, Tumkur, facilitated a session on ‘Financial Procedures’ on 30th of April 2012 for the Block Program Mangers and accounts assistants of each taluka.
The session started with a theoretical explanation of basic accounting records such as ledgers, cash book, bank book, vouchers and registers.
- This was followed by an interactive discussion on the formats being currently followed and how it could be improvised further.
- The facilitator then explained the concept and purpose of preparing bank reconciliation statement.
- This was followed by an interactive discussion on practical issues faced while maintaining these records and how they could be resolved.
- The session ended with a discussion on procedures for calling quotation and tenders. The session provided a ground for discussion and coming to consciences on procedures to be followed as the session was joined by both BPM and accounts assistants who work on the maintaining books of accounts on a day to day basis.
s to the target community, as they are from the community and have acceptability within the community.
