Physical rehabilitation delivery by community health workers: Views of the users and caregivers

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Physical rehabilitation delivery by community health workers: Views of the users and caregivers
 
Creator Mapulanga, Miriam Dlungwane, Thembelihle
 
Subject primary health care; primary care users and caregivers; experiences and perspectives; physical rehabilitation services; community health workers; Lusaka
Description Background: Community health workers are crucial in providing health services at the community level. However, in Zambia, there are limited opportunities for formal physical rehabilitation training for community health workers, leading some to provide rehabilitation services without the necessary training.Aim: This study sought to explore the experiences and perspectives of users and caregivers who receive physical rehabilitation services from community health workers without training in physical rehabilitation.Setting: Matero, a sub-district of Lusaka, Zambia.Methods: An exploratory qualitative approach using face-to-face, in-depth interviews was used to collect data from users and caregivers who receive physical rehabilitation services from untrained community health workers. The study included 12 participants, six service users and six primary caregivers. Data were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis.Results: Six themes emerged from the analysis, namely access to services, perceived skills and competence of community health workers, satisfaction with community health worker-delivered physical rehabilitation services, values and attitudes of community health workers, perceived unmet needs of community health worker-delivered physical rehabilitation services and impact of community health worker-delivered physical rehabilitation.Conclusion: Physical rehabilitation rendered by community health workers positively impacted the users despite the gaps identified. Formalising training of community health workers in physical rehabilitation could enhance service coverage and improve the overall quality of care.Contribution: The scientific contribution has been made by the views of users and caregivers regarding their experiences and perspectives of community health workers-delivered physical rehabilitation services without training.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor Miriam Mapulanga and Thembelihle Dlungwane contributed to the content of the study
Date 2025-04-30
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Qualitative
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/phcfm.v17i1.4852
 
Source African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 17, No 1 (2025); 9 pages 2071-2936 2071-2928
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4852/8195 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4852/8196 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4852/8197 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4852/8198
 
Coverage Matero sub-district; Lusaka; Zambia — 25-80 years; users and caregivers of physical rehabilitation
Rights Copyright (c) 2025 Miriam Mapulanga, Thembelihle Dlungwane https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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