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HOW MUCH CURATIVE MEDICINE SHOULD A TRAINING
PROGRAM INCLUDE?
If health workers are to win people’s
confidence and cooperation, they need to
START WHERE THE PEOPLE ARE AND BUILD ON THAT.
Prevention may be more important than cure. But not to a mother whose child
is sick! Most people feel far more need for curative than preventive medicine. If
health workers are to respond to what people want, they must be able to diagnose
and treat a wide range of common health problems.
To teach health workers to start out by focusing on prevention can be a big
mistake. People do not immediately see the results of preventive work. They will
respond more eagerly if health workers begin with curative medicine and use that
as a doorway to prevention.
In a community-based program, curative care cannot be
separated from prevention. The first leads to the second.
A HEALTHY BALANCE BETWEN PREVENTIVE AND CURATIVE MEDICINE
MUST TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT.
Unfortunately, many programs provide training only in preventive measures and
‘health education’. Curative care, if taught, is limited to the treatment of a few
‘basic symptoms’, using 5 or 6 harmless or unnecessary medicines (see p. 18-2).
Sometimes health workers end up learning less about diagnosis, treatment, and
the use of modern medicines than many villagers already know. This so reduces
the community’s confidence in the health workers that they become less effective
even in their preventive work.