2015 APHA Annual Meeting & Expo

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

338355
Community Engagement as Delivery Strategy in Bangladesh Maternal Newborn Health


Tuesday, November 3, 2015 : 10:45 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Alan Talens, MD, MPH, World Renew, World Renew Health Advisor, Grand Rapids, MI
Audio (mp3) recording Recorded Presentation (mp4)
The World Renew project in rural Bangladesh, with high maternal/newborn mortality and inadequate health services, used the People’s Institution (PI) model as the delivery platform for interventions to engage communities in improving maternal newborn health (MNH) outcomes.

The strategy involved the mobilization and capacity-building of a 3-tiered community-based organization (CBO) structure that were linked in public–private partnerships (PPP) for MNH through active involvement in policy formation, facility management committees, and care coordination.

Locally-lead CBOs in 493 poor communities developed strong PPPs for MNH, including regular meetings with officials, CHWs linked with providers, referral and emergency health systems. Significant (p≤0.05) increases from baseline to end line in the intervention vs. comparison groups occurred in ANC visits, institutional delivery, SBA delivery, PNC, exclusive breastfeeding, newborn care, ORT use, care-seeking and quality of care.

 Community engagement through the PI model of community systems strengthening is an effective delivery strategy to improve MNH.

Learning Areas:

Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Protection of the public in relation to communicable diseases including prevention or control
Provision of health care to the public
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Describe how with maximized community engagement, community ownership could become well established and health outcomes improved and sustained in the medium to longer term Demonstrate how community engagement (The Peoples Institution model in Bangladesh) could be a successful delivery platform for interventions/services to reach usually unreached populations (e.g. ethnic groups in remote areas in Northern Bangladesh Identify the elements required for the community health system to achieve maternal newborn health impact at the community level

Keyword(s): Maternal and Child Health, Community Health Programs

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Alan Talens is the Health Advisor of World Renew in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He holds an MD degree and an MPH. He has been working in public health since 1999. Until 2009, he served as the Director of Community Health Programs of International Aid (Spring Lake MI) and supported public health projects in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Honduras, Indonesia, and the USAID-funded Child Survival Project (CSP) in the Philippines.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4142.0: Community Engagement: Current Evidence of Effectiveness